The Memory Remains
by Vovo
Summary: Meeting again and sinking in slowly in a whirlpool of memories. Seifer and Squall will realize the past is still present. The past is still alive.Yaoi. SxS. Not a songfic.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: Final Fantasy VIII and its characters are not my property, they belong to Square-Enix. I don't receive any profit from writing this fanfiction.

**A/N:** This is a yaoi/slash fanfic, so if you don't like it, don't read it. This story may contain some violence and mature themes in the next chapters, so you've been warned. As I mentioned before, this is not a songfic.

I speak English as a second language and I received the help from **Nightlore**, who worked as my beta-reader. I really have to thank him for all the support and for all the things he told me to make this a better story. Nightlore's been very patient with me through all this time. I also have to thank **Ficklefreckle** for the help when I was writing this story and **SeiferAlmasy'sLover86** for encouraging me not to stop writing Seifer x Squall fanfics. I've been really worried to post this story, because it's different from the other ones I wrote and I didn't know if they would like it.

**The Memory Remains **

**Chapter 1 **

"Are you busy, Squall?"

The brunet looked through the window of his office and saw the brightness of the day diminish with the approaching night. "Not really," he answered shortly on the phone and waited for what Rinoa wanted to tell him.

"Do you think you can pick me up tonight? I think it'd be nice if we went out for dinner. What do you think?" the girl asked sweetly.

"Sure."

"I almost thought you were going to say 'no, I have work to do'," the young woman giggled, "But I'm happy we're going out tonight. It'll be fun, you'll see. So... do you think it will take long for you to finish your work?"

"I'm almost finished. I'll call when I'm ready."

"Okay..." There was a brief pause. "I'll be waiting for you then."

"See you later."

Squall put his cell phone back in his pocket and checked some details about a few missions before putting the reports neatly on his table. He decided his work for the day was done and stared at his office's door before standing up to leave the place. Squall walked to the door's direction, but he didn't need to open it, someone else did it for him. "I hope you don't mind that I didn't knock..." the blonde instructor said, "Oh you're leaving already?"

Squall crossed his arms in front of his chest and gazed briefly at some point in the corridor, "Yeah."

He then looked back at Quistis and saw she was carrying a folder with her, "Is it something important?"

"I think you'd like to take a look at this," Quistis said in a hushed tone. "Can we talk for a moment?"

"Sure." Squall went back to his desk and sat on his leather chair, assuming the discussion would take a while.

After the Soreceress War, Quistis had received back her instructor's license and, as the years passed, she had been appointed to higher positions in Garden. She was then Cid's assessor, so all the missions passed through her hands before being sent to the headmaster for approval.

Quistis closed the door, put the folder on the desk and sat in the chair opposite from Squall. "Take a look," she glanced at the report.

Squall picked the folder and examined what was written on the white paper. It seemed to be an average mission; there was nothing that caught his attention, until he read a certain name. "Leviathan?"

"Yes... Leviathan."

Squall remained silent for a moment, feeling like something awakened in him, like an electric current passed briefly through his body. "Does anyone else know about this mission?" he finally asked.

"No, just you and me."

There was another brief silence, before Squall said, "I'll take this mission."

"I knew you would." Quistis stood up and walked toward the door. She stopped for a moment, but didn't turn to look at Squall when she said "See you later."

Then she was gone. Squall found himself alone in a silent office. It was already dark, but he didn't bother to turn on the lights. He sat there and observed the shadows of the furniture on the floor and walls while he was held prisoner by his thoughts. Suddenly, he picked his cell phone and waited for the other person to pick up the call. "I think I won't be able to take you to dinner tonight."

xxx

Squall observed the movement of the streets in that calm afternoon when he felt a soothing smell reach his nostrils. He stared at the thin lines of smoke that ascended in the air and realized the waiter had served his coffee. The dark liquid twirled lovingly as he guided the cup to his mouth. He took a sip and felt it calm him down. Then the brunet stared once again at the streets of that gracious city. He had arrived in Dollet some hours before and after he checked some details about his mission in his hotel room, he decided to wait at that café. It was closer to the place he should go that night, he just had to wait for a few hours until he could take his plan into action.

xxx

"So guys, I'm outta here," the tall blond said to his co-workers as he headed to the exit of the weapon's store.

"So soon, Adrian?" a dark-haired man in white clothes asked as he carried some boxes through the store. He was shorter than the blond and had a muscular body and lightly tanned skin. His black hair was slicked back, except for a large bang that fell over his face.

The blond turned his scarred face to his colleague's direction and smirked slightly. "Yeah, boss wanted me to come earlier, so I told him I should leave earlier too."

"I told you he favors him," a man leaned over the counter said. He was wearing leather pants and gloves, and a purposely torn blue kimono covered one side of his chest and shoulder. He had a bluish tattoo on one side of his face and some section of his body. To complete his distinctive look, the frontal part of his hair was white and some locks fell over one side of his face, contrasting with the rest of his dark hair.

"Maybe because I'm his best employee..." the blond smirked even more, before he remembered something. "Hey, I was watching something on the TV and I found out where you got your nickname from."

The man blinked in surprise. "What do you mean?"

"The anchor guy with the white hair, the badass pirate, his name was Motochika."

"Oh, I got it..." Motochika rolled his eyes. "But I didn't get the name because of him, I was always called Motochika, you know... my parents."

"I thought Motochika was your stage name or something... Well..." The blond turned again to the door's direction. "See you tomorrow."

"Hey, Adrian, don't you wanna come to the bar with us later?" the man in white clothes asked.

"Oh, you know how he is, he never hangs out with anyone," Motochika said.

"Man, you need to go out more."

"I go out, Maxi" the blond said, starting to feel a little impatient.

"But never with us."

"I did sometimes, remember?" the blond tried to defend himself.

"Yeah," Maxi rolled his eyes. "Once," he looked at Motochika.

"Twice," the man with the rockstar style nodded. "Twice in what... two years?"

"I bet it was more," the blond said. "And I didn't work here for much more than a year."

"One year and a half," Maxi teased.

"Okay, guys, you're right, I don't hang out with you much, but I have my reasons."

"It's better be a good reason," Maxi smirked. "Is it a blonde or a brunette reason?"

"Maybe it's a red-head reason," Motochika smirked.

The blond rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'm seeing a brunette tonight."

"So you prefer brunettes?" Maxi asked with a smirk.

"Yeah, there's something about them," the scarred blond said with the hope the answer would satisfy his friend.

"Yeah... I know... There's something about them..." Maxi seemed to be lost in dreamy thoughts for a while.

"Okay, Adrian, we got it. Go meet your brunette and have a good time tonight." Motochika said with good humor and blinked at his tall co-worker.

The blond man laughed. "Okay, see you tomorrow, guys." He felt the chilling night air and was glad he could finally escape his workplace. The blond didn't like to lie to his colleagues, but he had no other option. He had been lying ever since he met them.

The streets were very calm that night. Just a few people walking back home after a work day. He lived in a small apartment close to the store, so he just needed to walk a few blocks. The young man went through a small alley, distracted as he thought about his dinner, when he saw another man standing in the way.

Suddenly the tall blond stopped all his movements and almost forgot how to breathe. Like a ghost from the past, a scarred brunet appeared in front of him. The lights of the lamppost flickered over the pale skin as the gray eyes stared at him attentively. The leather pants were the same, the white t-shirt was the same, the leather jacket seemed to be different, but the model was the same as the older one.

The blond remembered how to breathe again and inhaled deeply. The night air seemed even colder in his lungs, but it burned as it passed through his throat. His chest felt heavy and constricted painfully as a too small cage to a pounding heart. His green eyes seemed to lose their vivid color for a moment, before they shone again in desperate frustration and rage, "You came here to arrest me?"

"No, Seifer," the brunet's voice echoed through the alley. "We need to talk."

"You came all the way here just to talk," the blond said sarcastically.

"We can go to your place, if you wish."

"Wait a moment," Seifer took some heavy steps forward. "I didn't invite you."

Squall took a deep breath, rolled his eyes, shifted his weight on his legs and crossed his arms, before finally replying, "Then maybe I will have to 'arrest you'."

Seifer remained silent for a moment, studying Squall's expression. He could see that the boyish features of before were slowly disappearing, but he still had that smooth pale skin unharmed by the age. The only thing that maculated the perfection of his face was the scar that cut his forehead, the scar that mirrored his, the scar that was still a reminder that they shared something together.

"I don't have any other option, do I?" Seifer asked in a much softer tone of voice.

"So we can talk." It wasn't a question, but a statement. Squall started to walk again, slowly, until he heard Seifer following him.

"So you know where I live." It wasn't a question. Seifer saw the brunet guiding him through a way he took every day.

Squall didn't answer. He just stared ahead and fought against the oppressing chilling air. But, in fact, it wasn't the air that was oppressing, there was something else weighting down on him. He felt the presence of the blond beside him and felt a turbulent wave of emotions exploding inside him and then settling down as he forced then to freeze in his chest.

Just some more steps.

Soon they arrived at Seifer's apartment and the blond opened the door, not bothering to close it. He sat on the couch that was also his bed and waited for Squall to say what he wanted to say.

The brunet closed the door and stared at the blond. He hadn't changed that much. His hair was slightly longer and his clothes were different. He wasn't wearing his trademark trench coat or his choker anymore. Seifer was wearing a pair of denim pants and a white tee, very simple and ordinary, nothing that caught too much attention. The only thing that could call some attention to his appearance was the scar and maybe his good looks. He was as handsome as he had ever been, but he seemed a little more tired, like some of the light of a vivid youth was gone.

"You wanted to talk, so talk."

Squall stared around the place and found a single chair next to a small table. He sat and turned to Seifer's direction. "You work at Leviathan."

"So?"

"They're involved with a criminal organization. They supply them with weapons and ammunition."

"So? Do you think I'm involved in this shit?"

"You're not," Squall stated. "But you don't seem surprised."

"I'm not, what can I do?"

"Did you notice anything suspicious?"

"Who doesn't do something suspicious at least once in their life? We were born in this world, it's reality, not a fairy tale. There are no angels here."

Squall stared deeply at Seifer and hesitated for a moment before continuing, "You work there, you can gather some information about their activities."

"Maybe I can, but why would I do this? Doing something against the people who hire me? Do you want me to lose my job?"

Squall pondered on his next words for a while. "I've been sent on a mission to investigate and end the activities of this organization. Leviathan will probably be down with it. You're already lost your job."

Suddenly a loud wave of laughter filled the small place. "Seriously, Squall? You come all the way here to tell me you're going to destroy the place I work before you do this. How considerate of you."

"I told you, you can help me in this mission. You'd receive a payment for your services."

"What? Do you think I need your money? Just because I live in this shithole? Why do you want to help me? You know you have no reason to help me," he stared deeply at Squall for a moment and felt suddenly weak looking at those blue eyes, but he eventually found his voice to speak again. "I don't need your pity. I never wanted it from you; or from anybody. So come on, bring me back to Garden. I'm a war criminal, get me back to confinement."

"If I wanted to do that, I'd have done it long before."

"You're telling me you're knew where I was all along?" Seifer saw Squall nod slightly. "And you've never done anything, even if Garden was responsible for me."

"For the records you're still confined under Garden's protection."

"So you're telling me you covered my escape and now you want to hire me?"

Squall remained silent for a brief moment, but then simply answered, "Yes."

"Why?"

Squall stared at Seifer and tried to find his reason. "Because I need inside information."

"You know you can do this on your own."

"But it would take time. If you do this, it'd be faster and easier."

"And what will you do with me after I give you the information you need?"

"You're free to go."

"I'm free to go... I'm free to go..." Seifer repeated the words, trying to see if he was convinced.

"So what do you say?"

Seifer turned his gaze away and shrugged, leaning back on the couch. "It's so unfair..." he whispered after some time of silence. "Things always go your way."

x

x

**A/N:** So this is the beginning of the story, how things start. I'll be spending some days in the US, but as soon as I get back from my vacation, I'll work on the second chapter. I already have it with the corrections from my beta, so I think it won't take long for me to post it.

I think some of you might have noticed that I used Maxi from SoulCalibur and Motochika from Samurai Warriors to make a special appearance. They won't be present in all the chapters. I had the option to create OCs for the role of Seifer's coworkers or use other characters. I chose the later because I felt guilty for not writing stories for them, so I wanted to feel what it was like it. Maybe they are OOC, but I hope they're not xD


	2. Chapter 2

**Word Count: 4,978**

**A/N:** I'd like to thank **Nightlore** for beta'ing this story. I think the corrections in this chapter were much needed, the text is much better now. Thank you so much for the review too, I'll try to stay strong and keep posting xD I'd also like to thank the ones reading this story.

This chapter is longer than the first one and there's some mild sexual content in here. Thoughts and flashbacks are in italics.

* * *

**The Memory Remains**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

The morning breeze brushed over Seifer's skin as soon as he stepped outside his apartment and reached the narrow cobblestone streets. It wouldn't take long before he reached Leviathan. The sounds of waves and the seagulls indicated he was close. The store was located in a peaceful place near the end of the pier, at the city's limits, with easy access to one of the roads. He stared at the sea when he reached a street that followed the coastline. The water had a different color from what he was used to see in Balamb. The ocean was so very blue there and the sand was so clear; in Dollet, it was much darker, but no less beautiful because of it. It was just not the same. Yet the smell of salt was the same. Whenever he experienced that smell he could close his eyes and imagine he was home for a brief moment. At some point though, he always had to open his eyes again for reality to hit him.

_That's the way life is, I guess._

He was soon facing the entrance of Leviathan; the place clearly making a reference to the Guardian Force with the big blue serpent painted outside. It was funny that he only realized it was a weapon store when he entered for the first time, looking for a job. He had thought it was some kind of restaurant specializing in seafood or maybe a specialized shop for fishing equipment. The weapon store was quite famous in the region, but he didn't have a clue coming from outside.

"Hey, guys," Seifer said as he saw his colleagues already there. There were more working at the place, but those two were the ones who worked the same shift as him, so they were the ones who he saw the most.

"Hey, Adrian," Maxi smirked at him. "Had a good night?"

"Yeah..." Seifer said shortly.

The man curled his lips into a distorted smile and then laughed, "It doesn't sound so good."

"Oh, it was," Seifer passed by him. "Very good, she went to my apartment and... I couldn't get much sleep because of it." He thought about his night rolling on his bed, thinking about what he had gotten himself into. "So is the boss around?" he tried to sound nonchalant.

"Nope," Motochika said as he approached. "I heard he had some stuff to do elsewhere. Good for us," he smiled and winked playfully.

"Yeah, that's great," Seifer agreed.

xxx

It was easy to sneak inside the office and search around, none of his superiors were there and his co-workers had been talking at the public area of the store for most of the time.

When his shift ended, he had finished his other 'job', so he made his way to the store's exit. He saw his colleagues and suddenly felt a pang of guilt; he knew they were going to lose their job soon for what he had found out. He suddenly felt a wave of anxiousness take control of him. When he was starting to think he would have a new life, his past just popped up in leather in front of him. What would happen to him when this was all over?

"Hey, you're gonna leave just like that?" Maxi said when saw Seifer at the door.

"Oh, sorry, um...see you, guys."

"Wait," Motochika said.

Seifer took a deep breath and turned to stare at the other man.

"We're going to a party tonight, wanna come?" the man showed a warm smile. "Come on, you'll like it!"

"Hm... I have other things to do."

"The brunette again?" Motochika asked.

"Yeah, always the same brunette."

xxx

"You seem tired," Seifer couldn't help but comment on it.

Squall didn't frown, and didn't seem disturbed by someone pointing out a brief display of weakness. He just rubbed his eyes briefly and shrugged. "I was doing some investigating. So what did you find out?"

"Leviathan is supplying weapons to an organization they call 'Sunshine'," Seifer couldn't help but laugh in amusement. "A very fearsome name, very imposing," he commented sarcastically and then saw the look on Squall's face for him to return to the important details. "It seems the owner of Leviathan is the brother of the leader of this Sunshine, they call him Calypso. Have you ever heard of it?"

"Not really, I'll ask Quistis to do some research."

"It seems there's gonna be a delivery tomorrow," Seifer continued.

"Delivery?" Squall arched an eyebrow.

"Yes, a special delivery it seems." Seifer saw Squall narrow his eyes slightly and could almost hear the gears in his brain working. "It's something big isn't it?"

"What?" Squall seemed confused.

"For the commander himself to take this mission," Seifer pointed out.

Squall remained silent for a moment, pondering upon his words, "I don't know. I still don't know how big it is," he finally said.

"Then why were you appointed to this mission?"

Squall stared at Seifer.

_Because it involved you_, Squall thought.

Quistis knew that, so she showed him the report as soon as she found out. Another SeeD involved in the case would find out about Seifer's situation and the cover would be blown.

"It has something to do with missing people." Squall hoped that would satisfy Seifer.

"What kind of people?"

"People who lived on the streets, they're easier to disappear unnoticed."

"But someone noticed."

"One of them was the daughter of an important guy. She was a drug addict and had been living on the streets for quite some time. They didn't stay in touch, but she was still his daughter. He found out some other people were missing here and there. He went to the police, but there was not much they could do. People like this disappear all the time. They didn't find out what happened, but there is an uneasiness in those people."

Seifer thought about it for a while. "I didn't see anything separated for delivery in the store. Do you think this special delivery could be those people?"

"Maybe." Squall pointed out to the files in Seifer's hand. "Can I have this?"

"Sure," Seifer handed what he had found.

"I gotta go now." The brunet stood up and headed to the door.

"Squall," Seifer saw his intention and felt the need to make the man stop.

The brunet turned briefly, "I'll make sure you get your payment."

"It's not what..." Seifer paused for a moment in a confusion of feelings. "I... I'm..."

"I gotta go." Squall opened the door and left the place in a hurry, before Seifer could finish his sentence, leaving a speechless blond behind.

xxx

Shining silver moonlight over the arid field.

Squall had been at a strategic point to observe the storehouse, waiting for the moment when the special delivery would arrive. Even though he forced himself to concentrate on his task, his mind kept going back to the meetings with a certain blond. He had prepared himself for that, he knew it wouldn't be easy. It ended up being less conflicting than he first expected, but still he felt its influence upon him. Something, there was something, there was something missing, there was something unfinished.

It was then he heard clear footsteps and his body tensed in the assumption he had been caught, but then he turned his head to see a familiar face, a familiar scar. He was dressed all in black, black pants, black shirt, black coat, as if the blond wanted to disguise himself as the night.

"Surprised?" The green eyes saw the look of disbelief in those blue orbs.

Squall saw the scar on Seifer's face contort a little as he arched an eyebrow and smirked. "What are you doing here?"

"You didn't let me finish what I wanted to say, so..." Seifer saw Squall avert his gaze and tried to study his reaction. "I knew you would be here..." he started, but suddenly stopped when he heard a vehicle approaching.

Both of them turned to see the big truck stop by the storehouse. The large metallic gates opened and some men appeared into view. Seifer recognized his boss getting out of the truck and some familiar faces with him. He was sure he had seen those men more than once in Leviathan and he was relieved he didn't find his co-workers there. It didn't mean they weren't involved in it, but there wasn't any evidence that linked them to the organization. It would be too painful to have to fight them. He did all he could not to be too much involved with them, that's why he always turned down their invitations and talked very little about his life, and every time he talked about it he lied. Yet, he could not help but feel somewhat attached to them. They were fun to talk to, and made his hours at the workplace a little better. He didn't have any friends since he had to leave Fujin and Raijin behind in order to try to begin a new life. His life in Garden wasn't so much of a prison, but his every move was always watched. Of course, he couldn't leave the place. The governments still saw him as a treat, and capital punishment had been brought up not only once, but Cid and Garden convinced everyone it was the best place for him to stay. Not long after he was locked in Garden, he managed to escape.

He had been hiding for a long time; he had gone to different places, not staying for too long, vanishing as soon as possible to another location. He had changed his hair color sometimes, left his trademark clothes, but he didn't leave Hyperion behind, it was the only thing he kept. He spent some time living this erratic life, but he started to grow tired of it, so he searched for a place where he could start a new life. Balamb was not an option, for logical reasons. He was known in both Deling City and Timber and he would die of boredom in Winhill. So he chose Dollet. It was a good place, with charming architecture and interesting nightlife, even though he didn't go out much, he enjoyed the atmosphere. In addition, the weather was always nice and it was close to the sea. He loved the sea; he thought he couldn't stay far from it for too long. So he found a cheap place to live and started working for people that didn't ask too many questions about his life. He liked weapons anyway. It would be a good start for a new life; a new life that ended too soon.

"Seifer?"

The blond snapped out of his reverie. "What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah..." His new life had ended. "Yeah, I'm okay. Anything new?"

"They're unloading the truck now."

Seifer gripped the handle of his gunblade, just in case he had to get into action, but he loosened his grip when he saw the content of the cages. "Monsters?"

There were several creatures from different species inside the cages. They were brought inside the storehouse and lined up for inspection. Then the unconscious creatures were separated. Some of them went back to the truck and the others were led to a big heated furnace and thrown into the fire.

Seifer and Squall watched as the ill-fated monsters met their end in flames, but there was nothing they could do. It wasn't illegal to kill monsters, even though there was a suspicious cause for that.

They watched the entire activity until it finished and then the truck moving towards the road's direction, carrying the approved sample and a van with the rest of the men following behind.

When the place was empty, Seifer and Squall found their way in to investigate the area. After some time, they realized there was nothing that really helped them in the case.

"Can we go now?" Seifer asked. He was tired, it was almost dawn.

Squall nodded and walked out of the place, followed by the blond.

The first rays of light were rehearsing its appearance and the horizon seemed to display an uncertain mix of colors.

Seifer watched the brunet walking ahead of him. He walked slowly, but with assured steps, crushing the dry earth with his boots, creating munching sounds.

"Squall?"

The brunet stopped and then turned, an indescribable expression on his face.

Seifer waited until the blue eyes were fixed on him. "I'm sorry. That's what I wanted to say. I never said it before."

The blond watched as the blue became a hazy gray as the brunet turned his face away. Seifer took some decided steps forward and made Squall look at him again.

"I'm really sorry, do you understand?"

Squall moved swiftly away from the heat of Seifer's body and stopped when he could no longer feel the warmth of the blond. "I understand," he said in a not so confident tone, but he hoped Seifer would be satisfied with the answer and... and what? Leave him alone?

Seifer sighed in frustration, but realized there was nothing much he could do at the moment. Squall was like that. "I'm going now, okay?" He stared at the brunet's unmoving back. What was he expecting? A reaction? Just because... it would be the last time they would see each other? Seifer didn't think about it when he left the Garden, didn't really think about what he was leaving behind. But at that moment, he felt that there was something... unfinished. Even so, he willed himself to turn and walk away from the place. There was nothing there anymore, it was better to leave his past behind.

"Wait."

The blond stopped, still not sure if he had really heard Squall telling him to**-**

"Wait... Seifer."

"What is it now?" the blond asked without turning.

There was a moment of hesitation, but Squall finally said, "Do you wanna come with me?"

"What?" Seifer turned to stare at Squall in disbelief.

"To continue the mission."

"Why are you asking me that?"

"Because I might need help."

"You can handle things on your own."

"Maybe not," Squall confessed. Even though he was capable enough to accomplish most tasks on his own, there were still some moments he really needed help. He had learned that he couldn't really live on his own.

Seifer seemed to ponder upon the topic for a moment. "I don't think it's a good idea."

"I don't think you were born to work as a clerk. You were trained to become a SeeD, you were trained to fight."

"Yeah, and I fucked up everything... Now..."

_...let me go. _

"What you're gonna do now?"

"I don't know," Seifer started to walk.

"Don't you miss it?"

Seifer stopped when he felt an electric current course through his body before he turned in confusion. "What?"

"The thrill."

If Seifer missed it?

"You don't need to come back to Garden. I'll only ask for you to help me in this mission."

"Only for this mission?" Seifer half-smirked. He felt a slight dizziness overcome his mind, he felt confused, sucked into a whirlpool of excitement and despair. He could feel the rush of adrenaline already. Squall was right, he was carved for battle. "Let's go get them."

xxx

It was Seifer's day off and he still woke up early. He had packed the things he needed the night before, just a few changes of clothes and his beloved gunblade, he didn't need much more.

He stepped out of his apartment and breathed in the fresh morning air. His footsteps led him through familiar streets near the ocean; he would have some time before meeting the SeeD commander. They had agreed to meet at one of the city's entrances, near the road they would take.

That smell of salt coming from the sea... for how long he would be away from it? Could he return to that place when everything was over? When would it be over...?

The morning sun, the sound of his footsteps in cobblestone streets. How would Motochika be doing that morning? Would he be playing that peculiar instrument he called shamisen? Maxi would arrive later that day, he would probably be at the port that morning, practicing with his nunchaku.

Seifer went to the docks, but didn't see any familiar faces, just shadows of unknown ones loading and unloading the ships. He decided to head downtown, where there was a café he liked. The blond indulged himself in eating a fluffy croissant for breakfast and drink a strong black coffee to warm his body. He watched as some people walked around calmly, carrying fresh vegetables home and drunk artists coming back from their nightly adventures, stumbling happily through the streets. That was a peaceful portrait of a life, a normal life, a life that wasn't his.

The young man lifted himself off the small round table at the mezzanine of the café, it was time to go back home and pick his things.

xxx

The dry earth creaked under his boots as he leaned against an old wall. The cement was cold against his back, but the air was steamy hot around him. There was a cruel round sun above him as he stared at the orange horizon, the sky was burning. Seifer brushed off small droplets of sweat that was covering his forehead and was thinking about taking off the trench coat he decided to bring. His new black trench coat... he just couldn't help himself, he eventually bought a similar model to the one he used to wear.

Then a black car appeared in his view; a shining piece of power in the form of metal. Seifer watched as the vehicle approached and then stopped some feet away. He straightened himself and saw a leather-clad brunet walking towards him before he could walk in the direction of the car. For a moment, he stood paralyzed. It seemed Squall was wearing new leather pants-he assumed by the conditions of the fabric-and they looked to be clung more tightly to his body than his old model. And he was wearing a tight black t-shirt with the silvery gleam of Griever over it. He wore just one belt around his hip, a large black one with a silver buckle. And to finish his outfit, he was wearing black boots and sunglasses. For a reason Seifer wouldn't admit, the brunet was quite a sight, but he brushed the feeling away when he saw Squall standing right before him.

There was a small silence, while they stared at each other. Seifer caught an almost imperceptible arch of a dark eyebrow and assumed Squall was inspecting him.

"I just thought I needed to bring a trench coat and decided to put one on instead of carrying it around. I was going to take it off, when you arrived, I'm not a masochist, you know."

Squall seemed to be confused about the comment, but shrugged. "Are you ready to go?"

"Yeah, I've been waiting for quite some time."

"It was the rental shop..." Squall started but decided the details weren't important, so he turned and walked to the car's direction.

Seifer stood in place for a moment, before following the brunet. He put his clothes at the trunk and put his warped up gunblade in the back seat, before taking the passenger's side. He saw Squall turning on the engine and the following movement of the car. The blond inspected the impeccable interior and assumed it must be a rather expensive vehicle, nothing to ostensive, but still very fine. It smelled of cleanliness and leather.

The landscape moved slowly outside at first, but then rushed in front of his vision in blurry shadows. He stared at Squall for a moment, and the brunet seemed to be concentrated on the road ahead. Too concentrated. Of course it was like Squall to be focused on the task at hand, but driving surely wasn't the most dangerous thing he had done.

"I think we can reach the next meeting point in two days," Squall said as if he knew Seifer was then staring at him. Even though his gaze seemed to be fixed on the road.

"In time for the next horror show." Seifer remembered what had happened the night before, the monsters being thrown to their death in the fire, the smell of burnt flesh.

"Do you think it will be the same thing? I think it was specified that there was another kind of shipment."

"You don't miss a thing. But I bet it's another sick sight we'll see." Seifer turned his gaze to the road and saw some cars passing by their side.

Squall opened his mouth to say something, but then closed his lips again, remaining silent.

Seifer stared at the brunet again and saw Squall focused on the road but there was something that seemed strange; he seemed tense for some reason. If they were in another time, he would just ask what was wrong, but at that moment, he felt uneasy to ask for some reason. He stared back at the landscape beside him, the flashes of things passing before his eyes. Even though he wasn't looking at Squall, the brunet's presence was still strangely overwhelming.

xxx

After hours of driving, they had reached a small hotel in the beginning of the evening. They decided it was better to stop there and rest for the night, because the other hotel would be too far away. Both of them headed to each room, after they checked in, leaving each other for a while.

When Seifer stepped outside of his room, it was already dark, not so dark as in the late hours of the night, but a faint darkness that meant the light of the day was over. The moon was already up in the sky, watching the world below with curiosity.

Seifer headed to a small restaurant beside the hotel, his hunger too evident for him to ignore it any longer. He stepped into the place and saw a modest restaurant with simple furniture. Everything seemed outdated, old like past. There were a few truckers eating gloomingly at the counters and tables, excessively silent and with heavy expressions of fatigue. There was a man behind the counter, who seemed to be the owner of the place. He had cynical lips, but tired eyes and stared emotionless at the shaky image on the screen of and old TV. He would expect the restaurant to have those annoying bright lights those places used to have, that sick white color, but instead, it was scarcely lit. It seemed some lamps had been burned out but no one cared to fix it. The place was mostly illuminated by the lampposts beside the road and the moonlight that entered through the large windows.

The blond searched for an available table-and that wouldn't be hard to find-but something caught his attention. There was a brunet sitting at a table beside the window. He was staring at the road through the glass and some of the lights of the cars that passed illuminated his face for brief moments. The brunet had a contemplative expression, as he watched the movement of the road and his lips seemed to be moving slightly, almost as if he was humming the slow song that was playing through old speakers. The singer sang something about being crazy for loving someone and Seifer smirked in amusement at the idea of Squall humming that song.

Seifer walked towards his direction and realized the brunet had already ordered his dinner. There were neglected pieces of a steak and scattered green pieces of a salad in the plate in front of him.

_I wonder what you're thinking._

The blond sat at the place in front of the brunet. A blue gaze turned to his direction briefly before being lost in a dish.

Squall shifted in his seat and seemed to lift himself slightly, before stopping and turning back to his initial position.

Seifer was slightly unnerved by the reaction, but said nothing about it. The blond saw Squall's gaze moving back to the road and he made himself look around, just to search for something to look at. He saw a middle aged woman leaned back against the counter and assumed she was the waitress, so he motioned for her to come to his place.

"Is it that bad?"

Squall was a little startled by the question, but turned back to the blond's direction. "What?"

"What you've ordered..." He stared at Squall's dish.

"No, it's fine."

"But you weren't very enthusiastic about it," Seifer stared at the leftovers.

"No, it's not so bad. I wasn't so hungry."

"You weren't so hungry? After all those hours..." Seifer stopped what he was saying when he saw the waitress by his side.

"Hello, young man, what's gonna be tonight?"

Seifer turned to the woman's direction and saw a face covered in too much make up: the red full lips and the colored eyelids gave her an unnatural look, but she had a kind smile on her face, that soothed her expression.

"What do you suggest?" Seifer asked.

"Well, we have something special today," the waitress opened a bright smile. "A delicious steak and salad."

Seifer stared back at Squall's dish. "Hmmm... Is there anything else?"

"Well, we do, we always do, but I have to say that our steak is the best we got."

"Hm..." Seifer stared around in thought. "Okay then..."

"You won't be disappointed, I guarantee," the waitress opened one of those bright smiles and Seifer couldn't help but offer a small smile back. "And you, my dear," the woman continued. "Would you like anything else?" she asked Squall.

"Hmm... No, nothing."

"A coffee, maybe..."

"Yeah, a coffee," he stared at the waitress with a small gleam in his eyes. "Black."

"Okay," the woman smiled in her small victory. "I'll be right back."

It was then Squall heard a loud chuckle. He stared at Seifer and saw the blond offering a smirk. "What?" he asked in slight annoyance.

"You almost don't seem like yourself when you hear the magic word 'coffee'. You almost seem like Zell when he hears 'hot dog'".

"I don't," Squall stated.

"Yes, you do," Seifer teased.

The brunet rolled his eyes and stared back at the window. "What..."

"...ever."

Squall shot a cold stare at Seifer and that made the blond laugh in amusement.

Some things never change.

Then the laugh died down and Seifer was staring again at a brunet who stared at the road.

It didn't take long though for Seifer's order to be placed in front of him and dark steamy coffee to be spilled in Squall's cup. For a place like that, the service seemed to be incredibly efficient. Though Seifer bet most part of it was the work of a woman who blinked at him.

The blond took a slice of the steak and savored it carefully. It really tasted like a steak. "Hm... It's not bad," Seifer concluded and picked another slice with his fork.

"I told you..." Squall said.

"Okay, I got it, Leonhart never lies."

Squall rolled his eyes and Seifer chuckled.

A long moment of silence followed, but it wasn't that awkward silence of before, it was a comfortable silence.

Seifer ate quietly and ordered some beer after. Squall had his coffee cup refilled a few times. They finished their meals and paid the bills and...

There was a gray-blue stare. Seifer was caught by a pair of eyes staring directly at him and he could not avert his gaze. The moment seemed to last for a small eternity, one of those moments when time stops...

Then the flow of time hit Seifer again when he saw the brunet standing up suddenly.

A moment he was there...and the next he was gone.

Seifer found himself suddenly alone in his table, illuminated by the lights of the cars that passed through the road.

xxx

_The clothes lay scattered over the cold tiles. _

_It was wet. _

Squall felt the drops of water running down his body as he stood in the bathroom stall. _He closed his eyes and felt fingers on his wet hair-long fingers of a male hand. Then there was a hot breath against his ear. His entire body trembled. He suddenly felt he couldn't __breathe__. _

He snapped his eyes open and saw the bathroom tiles staring back at him. Squall breathed in deeply and stared down at an evident erection. He breathed in slowly again as warped his hand around his member, stroking it slowly as he closed his eyes again.

_The brunet felt the hot breath again, but then there was a hard body pressed to him. He heard the slam of flesh against flesh resound over the place. Squall pressed his face to the tile wall and felt coldness against his skin._ He let out a strangled moan as he increased the rhythm, stroking himself as vigorously as the hard thrusts. And then he felt a familiar rush through his body and spilled his hot seed against the tile walls.

Squall breathed in hard, feeling the air wasn't enough for him to breath, until he opened his eyes again.

He was alone in the bathroom, with only running water as a companion.


	3. Chapter 3

**Word Count: 3,464.**

**A/N: Sorry for the long wait, my job is to blame. Special thanks to Nightlore for being my beta and for the reviews ^^**

* * *

**The Memory Remains**

* * *

**Chapter 3**

The morning breeze caressed the brunet's face in a not totally unpleasant way. He preferred the chill over the oppressing air of the hot afternoon that would come. Squall walked with heavy steps under a blue sky and found a blond already waiting by the car. He saw a green gaze lift from the ground to meet his and he felt he couldn't face it.

Seifer was leaning back on the car and had his arms crossed in front of his chest. He arched an eyebrow as he saw the brunet approaching. His mouth opened for him to say something, but somehow, he felt he didn't know what to say. There was something strange in Squall's behavior. Of course, he had never been the talkative type, keeping quiet when he didn't have something important to say, but he was unnervingly quiet at the time. Squall never had a problem at staring at someone in the eye and he had walked past him, entering the car as if Seifer wasn't there.

"So you're not much of a morning person as I thought you'd be," the blond said when they were already inside.

Squall turned to the side, but didn't look at Seifer in the eye. He just shrugged and started driving.

"Yeah, you always make me feel so comfortable," Seifer muttered as he stared at the window. He watched as a red mountain range passed by his vision and occasionally saw a lonely withering tree passing quickly. He breathed in deeply, trying to intake as much air as possible. It suddenly felt so hard to breathe, there was something oppressing in the atmosphere in that car. He looked at Squall and saw him staring straight at the road. Seifer felt a sudden anger build up in his chest, burning its way to his lungs and remained stuck in his throat. For a moment he wanted to set that anger free and shout. He wanted to shake Squall by the shoulders and urge him to tell what the fuck was wrong, but he contained himself. He noticed that the skin under the brunet's eyes were some shades darker than usual. "You look tired," he finally said.

Squall shifted his gaze slightly and then went back to stare directly at the road, but his body seemed to relax just slightly. "I didn't sleep well, that's all," he said softly.

"Did you have trouble sleeping?" Seifer asked in curiosity, but he wasn't sure if Squall would answer that question. As he anticipated, the brunet kept quiet. "Okay, I see you don't want to talk about it..."

Seifer gave up, he knew that there was no way to make Squall speak if he didn't want to.

There was a brief silence once again, before a ringing sound echoed inside the car. Seifer saw Squall pick up his cell phone and look at the screen to see who it was, he than accepted the call and put his cell phone on his ear. He waited for the other person to speak before answering, "I'm okay."

There was a brief pause, before Squall continued. "I was busy with the mission last night."

That made Seifer arch an eyebrow in question as he listened quietly. It didn't seem to him that Squall had been that busy with the mission the previous night, but then he might have been doing some research, that would explain the lack of sleep he had too.

"No... I didn't have time to check on my cell phone last night," Squall continued. "Yeah, I'll see it."

Seifer paid attention to Squall's behavior while he talked. By the tone of his voice and the fact that he actually accepted to be talking to this other person, it must be someone important to him. The blond wondered who the person was.

"I'm not busy right now, I'm just driving." There was a brief pause and the shadow of a frown appeared on his face. "Okay, I won't talk while I'm driving anymore," he answered in slight annoyance. Then his expression softened again and he continued, "Okay, I'll check it." He waited some more before finally saying, "Bye."

Squall stared at the screen with an indescribable expression as he seemed to be lost in the message he was reading for a moment. Then he returned his cell phone to his pocket and kept driving.

"Who was it?" Seifer asked before he realized that the question might have sounded a little blunt and he knew Squall didn't like to answer this kind of personal question... if it was a personal question.

Squall remained silent for a moment, but then answered after a time of reluctance. "Rinoa."

"Are you two dating?" Seifer stared back at the window, trying to look nonchalant.

There was a brief pause while Squall was pondering on his answer and then he said, "I don't know."

"You don't seem very enthusiastic about it."

"...I have doubts."

"Doubts?" Seifer turned to look at Squall again. The brunet seemed to have some sort of a confused look on his face and a slight frown. Squall opened his mouth to say something, but no words came from it and he closed it again.

Seifer decided it was better not to press Squall if he didn't want to talk about it, so he averted his gaze once more and turned his face to stare at the window again. He saw the trucks lifting brown dust from the road and the dry earth asking for rain beside them. The area didn't have much vegetation so he could see the bare soil cracking under the sun. He had been distracted for a while, counting the simple houses that came into his view occasionally, staring at the hypnotizing reddish brown of the landscape, lost in thoughts, when he suddenly felt something different. He turned to look at Squall and saw the brunet staring at him. The young man in leather didn't say a thing, he just stared in mesmerizing blue and Seifer felt his gaze locked to it. He couldn't avert his eyes, he felt paralyzed for a moment. Seifer willed himself to avert his gaze and he was finally able to break the spell after a while. He stared at the window beside him as if it would save him. The moment had been brief but that silent stare seemed to have affected him more than a thousand words would.

xxx

It was night when they had finally reached a hotel. Seifer felt so tired after all those long hours inside the car, he was relieved to stretch his legs for more than a few minutes, but the thing he felt he needed more was a good rest. He turned off the lights of his room and was ready to go to bed when he heard a knock on the door. Seifer wasn't expecting that, but opened the door without much hesitation. He knew Squall must be the only person to go to his room at that late hour, but he still was surprised in seeing him at his doorstep. Seifer saw that Squall had taken off his leather attire and was wearing much more comfortable clothes. His hair was wet, making it seem slightly darker and some small droplets of water slid over his pale skin. The blond let the SeeD commander come in and felt the fresh smell of soap as Squall passed by.

"So..." Seifer closed the door. "Why do I have the honor of your presence here?"

Squall stared at him with a slightly confused gleam in his eye as he seemed to ponder on his words. "I..." he trailed off but stopped. He turned away from Seifer and walked through the room. "We're going to reach their meeting point tomorrow..." The brunet walked to the windowsill and stared outside. He saw some trees surrounding the hotel, a sight that was rare for him to see those days. The green leaves waved slightly with the night breeze as the lampposts' lights illuminated them. If he stared beyond it, he could see the shadow of a mountain range adorning the dark horizon.

Seifer watched as Squall stared in silence at the landscape, the moonlight bathing his pale skin. He seemed to be lost in thought and the blond waited for him to say something, but nothing came.

"You're not here to talk about the mission, are you?" Seifer finally asked.

Squall averted his gaze from the landscape outside and stared down at some invisible point in the air. Then he started to walk slowly again, crossing the room. Seifer heard the wooden floor creak softly under Squall's footsteps and had the impression the world was shaking below him. His heart beats raced and thundered in his chest while he saw Squall staring directly at him as he approached. The brunet stopped right in front of him, just a few inches away, and Seifer could still feel a warm breath against his neck. He knew Squall didn't like to have his personal space invaded, and it was even more surprising to see him invading another's personal space.

Seifer lowered his head slightly and saw himself staring directly into Squall's eyes. He felt the world weighting on his shoulders, pressing him down and his body tensed as if there was something about to explode inside him. A bead of sweat rolled down his forehead while he felt like shaking uncontrollably inside. Yet Squall was still there, staring at him, saying something impossible with his eyes.

"You'd better leave," Seifer felt the heavy words making its way out of his mouth.

There was something that flashed into those blue orbs; they turned to a steely gray as he lowered his head. It seemed he was staring at a point in Seifer's chest and the blond felt still electrified inside. Then Squall turned and left without another word. He just went back to his room without looking back.

Seifer felt he could finally breathe again, but he still felt light-headed. Maybe it hadn't been a good idea to follow Squall. Maybe he should have left his past behind after all.

xxx

The morning was getting warm but it still felt chilling cold as Squall went outside. He felt a shiver run over his body when he saw Seifer standing by the car. That time, both of them did their best to avoid looking at each other. They just got in the car and stayed in mutual silence.

Even though the sun was up in the sky, some clouds watched the golden king, plotting some stormy scheme.

Seifer saw a monstrous truck pass by him and choked on the gray smoke it lifted.

"Why did you call me to this mission?" Seifer asked in frustration. "Really, what were you thinking?" He stared at Squall briefly and felt his chest clench in anger.

The brunet remained silent for a moment; his expression gave away his troubled state of mind.

"Why don't you answer me?" Seifer raised the volume of his voice in frustration. He stared at Squall's face and then stared at the road ahead, sighing deeply. "Why don't you ever answer me?" he muttered quietly.

"Do you want to quit the mission?" Squall asked in a low voice. "Do you want to leave?"

Seifer saw the clouds finally covering the sun and some small raindrops tickling the glass in front of him. "I'll continue this mission until the end." He watched as the dry land received the healing water from the skies and felt himself calm down. "I'll continue on until it's over and then I'll figure out what I'll do with my life."

Squall stared at Seifer and observed him for a while. He seemed much more relaxed as he stared at the rainy world outside.

"Fisherman's Horizon."

The brunet was confused by Seifer words.

"It's where I'll go if things don't work out in Dollet anymore." Then he turned to look inside the car, staring at a random point in the shining panel. "I thought of going to Fisherman's Horizon, but I wanted to try Dollet first."

"Have you tried other places?"

"Hell yeah, I tried a few. I spend some time moving from place to place until I could find somewhere to stay longer," Seifer chuckled slightly. "I thought things were quiet and no one knew of my location." The small smile that graced Seifer's face vanished and he had a somber expression again. "I guess there's no true quietness. Things seem to be silent, but there's always something in the air."

xxx

It was easy for them to sneak inside the large storehouse. The guards had been unprepared, probably too used to the tranquility of the area surrounding the place-that was practically deserted. It had been easy to take care of the security cameras too, so Seifer and Squall found a good spot to wait for what was going to take place.

After some hours there was some movement inside when some men in lab coats arrived. The scientists and their men started to prepare for their experiments. There were several compartments in the storehouse and a furnace that was similar to the one in the first place Seifer and Squall had been.

Sometime later, the sound of a truck arriving could be heard and the large metal doors were opened. The men started to unload large metal cages, but this time, there were humans instead of monsters. They were confined like cattle and some of the bodies were piled up.

Seifer looked at Squall and the brunet told him to wait with his eyes. They were both apprehensive about what was to come.

The scientists instructed their men to open the cages one by one and separated the bodies in a first selection. There were people of different ages and genders; they were all unmoving, unconscious, and unaware of what was happening to them.

The men in lab coats started to examine the bodies carefully and then separated them in groups. Some of the men and women were taken back into separated cages and led inside the truck once more. The others were led to another place in the storehouse.

Seifer and Squall exchanged glances again. They knew they had to take action before the truck left to prevent whatever fate the people were going to suffer if nothing happened.

Squall stared at the group of men and cast a sleep spell on them. They all fell unconscious to the floor, except for two scientists. So Seifer didn't think twice before leaving his hidden position and rushing over one of them, knocking him unconscious with the hilt of his blade. The other scientist pulled a gun and pointed it at the blond. Seifer stared at him and used the unconscious body of the man in his arms as a shield, in hope it would halt the scientist's intention.

"Don't shoot, I'm warning you," he said in a fierce voice. The scientist kept pointing the gun at him and didn't blink when he shot.

Seifer felt the impact of the bullets and tried to hold himself in place as the madman shot, until Squall arrived. The brunet made the scientist drop his gun and immobilized him.

It was only then Seifer could breathe again, but soon he found himself with a trembling body in arms. He felt himself being pulled down by it and when he laid the man on the floor, he saw the bloody holes in his body. The scientist was convulsing in pain and his eyes seemed to roll around in their sockets. The man was pale and mumbling something unintelligible in quivering lips, before the spasms in his body seemed to quiet down and he stilled.

"Shit." Seifer checked the man's pulse and confirmed his death. He sighed deeply and then eyed the struggling man in Squall's arms. The blond felt such anger build up in his chest that he stood up and walked to the man's direction with a menacing glare. "You son of a bitch!" He saw the man pale as he approached and Seifer didn't think twice before punching the scientist, making the man's face turn abruptly with the impact, his broken glasses flying through the air.

"Seifer," Squall warned when he saw the blond's fist rising again.

"You know he deserved it," Seifer said to defend himself and lowered his fist.

Squall rolled his eyes and brought the man to a chair, tying him to it. Then Seifer helped Squall with the other guards, so they wouldn't be able to escape. After finishing that task, they came back to the scientist's direction.

"Tell us what you know," Squall said in a fierce tone.

The man stared at him mockingly and showed an irritant smirk. "I won't tell you anything."

"You know it's better for you if you cooperate."

The scientist laughed. "I know I'm fucked, so I will not help any of you. I don't want to help you. I want you to go to hell."

Seifer stared at the mocking gaze and felt his blood boil. He grabbed him by the collar, lifting him along with the chair. Seifer stared at him menacingly and saw the confident gaze of the scientist waver for a moment. "So a punch wasn't enough to smack some sense into your head. Let's see how many you need then."

"Fuck you!" the man spat on the blond's face.

Seifer felt the spit burn mockingly on his skin and he punched the man as hard as he could, so hard it made his own knuckle ache. He realized there was blood in his hand and then saw the scientist try to muffle a groan. Blood from the man's mouth started to drip over his pristine white lab coat and he finally spit some teeth. "Now, are you going to cooperate or do you want to lose more teeth?"

"Seifer, stop," Squall said.

"But we have to make him talk!"

"There are other ways."

"What other ways are there to make a man like that speak?!"

Squall remained silent.

Seifer stared at the brunet and saw something strange in his expression. It seemed his eyes had turn to a steely gray color, an icy cold gray, and his gaze seemed to be lost. He had the impression the brunet's body was shaking.

"Squall?" he asked in concern.

The brunet felt an electric wave course through his body and he remembered pain.

There was a voice-

_"What is SeeD?__"_

He closed his eyes and his muscles tensed painfully.

"Squall?"

He couldn't think, just feel...

Squall felt a warm hand touch his shoulder, but he felt it was icy cold and moved away from it as if he had felt an electric wave. He blinked in confusion and then snapped out of his reverie.

The blond stared at Squall in concern. Then he lowered his gaze, remembering the brunet might not approve of his methods of interrogation. "What are we gonna do then?" he asked quietly.

Squall seemed to have recomposed himself from his sudden moment of uneasiness and signaled for Seifer to follow him, so they could talk without being heard by the scientist. "I'll get in contact with Quistis and she's going to ask for Galbadia's Garden help. They will arrive here and clean up this place. You're going to take the car and get back to the hotel."

"Wait, I won't leave you here."

"You have to go or the SeeDs will recognize you."

"But I don't want to leave you alone."

"I'll be fine, I'll wait here until they arrive. You're going to get back to the hotel. I'll meet you there as soon as I can."

Seifer stared at the horizon ahead; an orange glow signaled the beginning of a new day. "Okay. I'll go. But remember that I'm still in this mission." Seifer took some steps in the direction of the sunrise and then stopped for a moment to look back at Squall. "Remember we're together in this."


	4. Chapter 4

**Warning: Violence and disturbing imagery in this chapter.**

* * *

**The Memory Remains**

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Seifer drove through the deserted road, cutting the morning with his car. The sun was already up in the sky, but it was still cold.

He felt tired. His eyes wanted to rest, but he forced himself to keep looking at the road. The blond stared beside him and saw an empty seat. It was a strange feeling, to be completely alone again. Of course having Squall by his side almost seemed as if he was alone, but he wasn't. He had spent some years spending lots of time to himself, so maybe he just missed having a presence nearby. Seifer felt a sudden chill that wasn't due to the cold wind. He felt a strange feeling; the feeling of leaving something behind.

The blond shook his head and shrugged the feeling away. He decided to turn on the radio, just for the sake of numbing his thoughts, just for the thin hope of getting distracted. Soon the car was filled with a slow song and Seifer recognized it as the one that had been playing in the restaurant on the first night of their mission. He remembered Squall mumbling the lyrics, without realizing he was doing so; distracted with the image of the cars on the road at night.

Seifer saw the sunrays spreading over the horizon. Soon the cold morning wouldn't be so cold. As soon as the song ended, another slow song followed. The blond chuckled amusedly as he heard the lyrics. It was one of those sad love songs, a man wanting someone and never having the object of his affection. In another situation, the blond would never picture himself listening to those kind of songs, but somehow, they didn't bother him at the moment. It soothed his spirit; made him forget his worries and keep sane to drive. It was better than the silence, that lonely silence would feel too cruel.

When he reached the hotel, the sun was shining brightly in the sky. He left the car and almost stumbled on his way to his room. The blond was just so tired. He opened the door and collapsed on the bed. He only had the strength to kick off his boots and roll his body on the mattress, grumbling some confused words before letting a thick darkness fill his vision.

xxx

_"What we're going to do with him, sir?" _

_Seifer stared at the guards and saw a slumped young man being carried by them. He inspected the pale features of the unconscious brunet. "He didn't cooperate much, did he?" he mumbled to himself, in a voice too low for the guards to hear. _

_**He's so stubborn, why he keeps denying it? It almost seemed he was telling the truth...**_

_The blond shrugged. "Move him to the shower room." He saw the guards nodding in agreement and following him through the corridors. _

_They soon reached a large room covered in white tiles. The fluorescent lamps near the door were bright, but the ones over the most distant wall were flickering, creating a trembling shadow over the place. _

_Seifer heard his footsteps echo as he walked to the center of it. He turned to stare at the guards and then fixed his gaze on the unconscious brunet. _

"Seifer..."

_He stared in confusion as he heard a voice echo through the room. _

"Seifer."

The blond opened his eyes, startled. There was a very familiar face in front of his. He blinked in confusion and glanced briefly around, recognizing the surroundings as being the inside of the hotel room. Squall was leaned over him, blocking the light from his view. He saw the brunet sigh in relief and then moving away, giving space for the blond to lift himself up from the mattress.

"Did you find out anything?" Seifer rubbed his eyes and brushed the sleep away.

"A few things," Squall adjusted his seated position on the bed, leaving some space for the blond to sit. "They are doing some research on magic. It seems they were trying to figure out how monsters can use it without being junctioned to GFs. They seemed to be in the beginning of their researches, but..."

"But...?"

"It would be dangerous if they succeeded."

"We don't want the bad guys to have this kind of knowledge, do we? So what we're gonna do now?"

"They will find out what happened soon, if they didn't find out already."

"So we're running out of time..." Seifer felt himself growing apprehensive and he stared at the window.

"Quistis is trying to figure out the location of their main base now. She will get in contact soon."

"Yeah, instructor Trepe is good with these things..." Seifer turned back to Squall, feeling a question making its way up his throat and pleading to leave his lips. "How is she? How are they?"

"They're... they're fine."

Seifer waited for more information about them, but when he saw Squall had closed his mouth, he knew it wouldn't come. "Good," he said. At least he knew they were alive and...maybe happy. "And Fujin and Raijin? Are they doing fine?"

"Yes, they're fine. They kept asking about you."

"Did they stop?" Seifer arched an eyebrow, feeling a sudden wave of uneasiness cross his body.

"They don't ask anymore. I guess they figured out you weren't there. Shortly after it, they left for a long time, but then came back."

"I miss them," Seifer confessed.

Squall stared at the blond's expression. He seemed to be lost in thought. Somehow, he kept himself staring fixedly at him, the feeling of his presence stronger than ever. He felt the world beneath him shake a little and he found it difficult to breathe. Squall felt suddenly dizzy and pressed his eyes shut. _He felt a warm breath on his neck and then it lowering over his shoulder; he felt a cold touch against his skin_ _and his body was overwhelmed by a confusing sensation._

"Squall, are you okay?"

The brunet opened his eyes and snapped out of his reverie. He stared at Seifer's concerned eyes and felt the blond's hand on his arm, trying to call his attention. Squall moved his gaze to the hand and kept looking at it for a long time.

"Squall?" Seifer called the brunet's attention again. It was then he was surprised in feeling Squall's hand cover his and grab it, guiding it. Seifer was astonished as he followed the hand's movement and saw the brunet's fingers together with his lift Squall's white t-shirt. Seifer gulped and felt a chill down his spine when Squall made him touch the warm skin. The blond could feel the abdominal muscles trembling slightly under his fingers, before his hand was led up Squall's torso.

"It's still cold," the brunet whispered in a dream-like state.

Seifer took his hand away from the warm skin abruptly, as if he had been burned. He took a deep breath and stared at Squall in shock. "What are you doing?"

The brunet opened his mouth to answer, but no word came from his mouth. He watched as Seifer expression contorted in anger and felt suddenly frozen in place, unable to move.

"Do you have any idea of what you're doing?" Seifer hissed dangerously. "No, tell me you don't know." He stared deeply into Squall's blue eyes and took a deep breath, willing himself to calm down. "Squall," he called the brunet's attention, even though he knew he had been staring at him for the entire time. "Do you have any idea of what happened? Do you remember D-District Prison?" he asked in a low tone.

Squall stared at him in silence for a long time, before he answered in a whispered voice, "Yes."

Seifer blinked in confusion. "Do you remember the torture chamber? Do you remember everything I did?" he tried to ask cautiously.

"Yes," Squall said softly, not for a moment averting his gaze from Seifer's eyes.

"You do?" Seifer asked more to himself and seemed to ponder upon what he had heard. "You do remember everything?" he said in almost a whisper. Seifer saw the brunet nod in agreement and he was at a loss for words for a moment. He felt he had to avert his gaze from the haunting blue eyes or he would drown himself with guilt. "You know I was wrong," he started once again, still not daring to look at Squall. "I did very wrong things. I was so young and stupid. I let power take control of me. I regret what I did. I despise what I did. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression, but despite everything I did, I'm not gay. I just thought I could do anything," he laughed darkly. "I was on the top of the world. I thought I could get away with anything," he smiled sadly for a brief moment, before he stared back at Squall. No shadow of a smile on his face anymore.

They stared at each other in silence. The room around them seemed smaller, colder and darker. No sound dared to break that thick silence for a long time, before Quistis voice resounded over the room.

"I found them," the woman's voice clear in the silent room.

It took a moment for Squall to answer, but he eventually broke eye contact with Seifer and replied to Quistis. "I'm listening."

xxx

The main base was located in the building of a deactivated slaughterhouse. The surrounding area seemed to have seen better days, some houses and buildings had been abandoned, eaten by time; turned into lifeless ruins. The soil seemed to be hard and poor, only some wild vegetation seemed to be able to live there.

It was relatively easy to sneak inside the old slaughterhouse; they had taken some guards along the way and proceeded apparently unnoticed. They realized that the map that Quistis had provided indicated the local with accuracy and they decided to split up. They advanced through the place with ease, finding no real threat while they investigated the location.

"_**Squall?"**_ Seifer got in contact with the brunet.

"_**What did you find out?"**_ the SeeD commander asked, without losing time.

"_**I think I found the control room." **_

The blond closed the door again and walked through the place. There were several files piled up in tables, computers and large monitors at one side of the room. He watched the images displayed on the screens and realized it showed what was being captured by the security cameras. Seifer could see what was happening in several rooms and corridors; he could even see where Squall was. The blond looked around some more in suspicion. If that was the control room, why wasn't anyone there?

"_**Seifer?"**_ Squall called the blond's attention.

"_**Going to check on the place, hang on."**_

Seifer inspected the room carefully, but found no one there. He decided to search the files and see if he found anything important. There seemed to be a lot of data about the research, but he wouldn't be able to carry it. He checked what seemed to be the main computer and tried to see if he could find something. His green eyes widened in amazement as he transferred all the data he could find, saving it to a flash drive. He ended the task and went back to get in contact with Squall.

"_**Data gathered." **_

"_**Good." **_

"_**I can see you through the security system."**_

"_**Can you find the civilians' location?"**_

"_**Going to check it." **_

Seifer tried to find the place where the kidnapped people might have been and he raised an eyebrow when he found something suspicious.

"_**There's a lab 3 rooms from where you are. Take the corridor to your right. There are two guards. Keep following the right corridors. Three more guards along the way. Two scientists in the room." **_

"_**Got it." **_

Seifer watched as Squall swiftly made his way to the lab, neutralizing everyone that stood in his way.

In contrast to all the other locations, the laboratory was almost blindingly bright. The walls and floor were impeccably clean and the furniture was all white. As Squall walked through the lab, he noticed that everything seemed to be very orderly too. It wouldn't be the worst place the SeeD had been, but it wasn't the most pleasant either. There were several organs, as well as some fetuses, exposed in lined glass containers. As he advanced through the laboratory, he found several naked bodies lined in litters. One of them caught his attention. It was a girl; her expression very serene. He recognized her features. She seemed to be very pretty without the heavy makeup he had seen in her photos.

"_**I found her,"**_ Squall got in contact with Seifer.

"_**The guy's daughter?" **_

"_**Yes,"**_ He paused for a moment, "_**She's dead."**_

There was no pulse, no sign of life and her skin was pale as a ghost. Squall saw her open belly and noticed something might have been missing; maybe her womb. He inspected the other people in the room and concluded that all of them were dead. Moving forward he could see more bodies and those ones were more lacerated. Some had their upper body totally opened; ribcages spread wide and organs gone. Some of them had their skulls split in two; parts of their brains cut and others removed. Even though he noticed that all the procedures had been calculated, there were still stains of blood over the sheets, the reddish color creating a great contrast against the pristine white. Squall noted that some of the blood stains still had a vivid color, as if some of the procedures had happened not so long ago. None of the bodies exposed seemed to be in decomposition, which reinforced his thesis. Maybe if he had arrived earlier, they could be able to save the girl and other lives. Maybe...

Squall advanced through the room and saw something wrapped in black plastic bags and he guessed by the shape that it should be other bodies. He entered an adjacent room in hopes that he could find someone alive, but he only found more bodies. Some of them seemed completely normal; others, however, had strange features, like bluish or purplish skin. A few of them seemed to have been covered in scales, fur or even horns. There were some monsters' bodies as well in that room. They were displayed in large structures of glass, others had their bodies opened in a similar way to the humans. There was also an interesting thing Squall found. It seemed to be the fetus of a monster, but it seemed to have a Siamese-like body fused together, that resembled a deformed fetus of a human.

Deciding he should move on, Squall walked to the direction of a double metallic door. He opened it and a narrow corridor was revealed.

It was dark once more.

Seifer watched as Squall made his way, focused on the brunet's movements. He made the cameras follow him and it seemed he had lost track of the brunet, until he found him again in another room. It was darker than the previous ones, so he adjusted the brightness of the image, until he could discern well Squall's form. He saw that the brunet wasn't alone. There were three huge creatures in that same room, one opposite from Squall and two at each side of the room. They didn't look like any monster he had seen and they weren't human, even though there was some resemblance. The structure of the body, legs and arms, made them seem human, but they were huge, with big muscles covered by purplish skin and the head of beasts-excessively large mouths that could barely hide the lines of pointy teeth and big eyes, black as the darkest night. Seifer saw that even though they weren't moving, Squall had changed his stance, getting ready for a possible attack. It was then that something caught the blond's attention, a click behind him.

Seifer turned and saw a man pointing a gun at him. He was fairly tall and he had straight brown hair, some inches longer than Seifer's.

"Wondering where did I come from?" the man in lab coat smirked at the blond. "There are more secrets here than you imagine."

Seifer stared at the man in annoyance. "So you are Calypso."

The man only grinned.

"It's over," the blond continued. "This location is no secret anymore. Reinforcements are coming."

"Oh, it isn't over. It's just started. It is over for you and for your friend. I've created something magnificent and you'll have the privilege to witness before you're gone. Time is running out." With those last words, the man put the gun in his mouth and shot himself.

Seifer saw the man's lifeless body falling, leaving a blood stain on the wall and over the computers.

"Shit." The blond walked to the man's direction and saw the head opened, some pieces of the brain scattered around. "What a lovely sight," he sighed. "I thought you were going to try the big escape cliché, not the killing yourself thing..." He inspected the image before him in disgust and then turned. He looked around and something caught his vision. There was something different. Seifer stared at the screen of the main computer and saw a timer. By the time Seifer looked at it, there were 56 seconds left for the implosion of the building.

He cursed out loud and tried to calm himself to find a way to stop the timer. Seifer saw the time running out and rushed to find a solution, but realized there was no way to stop the building's auto-destruction. The best he could do was changing the timer, giving them 10 minutes to leave the laboratory.

"Squall," Seifer got in contact with the brunet. "Get out of here, this place is gonna blow up."

The brunet blinked in surprise with the sudden information.

"I have the data with me, hurry," Seifer urged.

Squall was almost ready to leave the place, when he heard something. He stared back at the creatures and realized they had moved. Squall took one step back and saw that all their eyes were focused on him. One more step and they were moving in his direction slowly. They started to grunt and groan in a curious way, as if they were trying to communicate with him. He stared at their faces again and saw that they didn't have a menacing stare; in fact, they seemed to be pleading for his help with their eyes.

They kept walking in his direction, groaning and whining. Squall didn't know what to do with them; he only knew he had to get out. He backed up a little more and pointed his gunblade at them, as if to tell them to stay away. Even so, they kept moving towards him, but even faster; faster than Squall thought they could move. It was then that one of the beasts caught him in a grip, but it wasn't pressing him, the beast seemed to be just securing him in place.

Squall struggled, yet the humanoid creature held him tightly. It was then he felt a bite on his shoulder. He winced in pain as sharp teeth sunk into his skin deeply. Squall didn't think twice then, he managed to loosen the grip on him with the beast distracted in biting him and slashed his blade at the monster's body, cutting one of the arms that held him in the process.

He was able to set himself free and saw the monster contorting and grunting in pain as blood spluttered from his severed arm. That made the other creatures groan loudly in rage and run to his direction.

Squall was expecting a physical attack, but he was surprised to feel his defenses weakening, surprisingly, the monsters had cast Meltdown on him. Squall screamed in agony and his body contorted in excruciating pain when he was knocked to the floor. The attack had been so strong it blinded him for a while.

When he could finally see again, he acknowledged the beast was too near and he still couldn't move. He could only watch as one of the abominations looked concerned at his wounded friend and cast Curaga on him. Squall felt one of them securing him in place, firmly, so he wasn't able to escape. Squall kept seeing the other beast casting Curaga after Curaga on the other, but that wouldn't be enough to recover a lost arm.

"Let me go..." Squall whispered weakly at the monster holding him, but the grip hadn't loosened. It seemed the monster wasn't going to attack him, but he couldn't be certain, he had seen what the other beast tried to do with him. So Squall focused in casting a spell and he hoped it would be strong enough.

Squall cast Blizzaga on the beast and felt the hard body freezing to the core. The SeeD commander knew it would be deadly cold by then, but he had a defense for that element. He saw the strong arms around him completely frozen and he hoped his plan would work.

Then he cast Fire.

Firaga would be too strong and affect him too with that proximity, but he could handle fire. The beast, however, couldn't, and Squall saw his body melting in the heat. It dissolved to the floor, turning to a red mass of liquid flesh, creating a dark pool with the remains of the body on the floor.

"Squall! Hurry up! There are just 5 minutes left!" Seifer urged for the brunet to leave the place as he saw there was no way to stop the timer. So he rushed to the exit, hoping the brunet would make it in time.

The beasts stared at the scene of their friend's body melting and yelled in pure anger. Instinctively, Squall cast Blizzaga, but he was surprised to see the magic had missed. It seemed the other two creatures had protection against that element. Squall couldn't prevent the attack and was knocked against the wall by the unharmed beast. He managed to escape just in time before sharp claws would sink into his flesh. Squall saw the two monsters coming his way and decided to take the weaker one. So he rushed to its direction and slashed his gunblade into the monster's body. The attack was strong enough to cut other bodies in two, but due to the beasts thick muscles it only made a gash into his torso. However it was deep enough to inflict severe harm, so the beast fell to the floor convulsing with his open chest.

Seifer couldn't help but stare at the scene. He was still in the control room. The blond had tried to leave the place, but realized he had been locked. There was a heavy metal door blocking his way. He tried to use force, but it remained closed tightly. Then he looked for a way to open it in the system, but he couldn't find any. He saw the time running out.

It was so ironic. He had fought in war and went through all that madness of sorceresses and he still lived. He even lived through Lunatic Pandora, but he was going to die in a regular mission. He couldn't find a way out, so all that was left for him was watch Squall as he fought.

Seifer saw the brunet's movements and made the image be shown in the larger monitor screen. He had always admired the way Squall fought. He was impressed at how he got better over the time. Much better than in the times they spared. Even better than when they fought in war. The movements were executed in perfection. As he watched Squall, he remembered his teenage years, when he watched a silent brunet pass by. He always wanted the brunet to notice him. Why did he try to ignore him? What Seifer could do to make him react?

"_Squall, hurry."_ He pleaded silently to himself.

There was nothing he could do anymore. The thought of dying alone was one that he had accepted long ago, but watch the brunet die was something he didn't want. Not at that time, not in a place like that.

x

x

**A/N:** More in the next chapter :) I want to thank the ones reading and my awesome beta, Nightlore.

Ciao


	5. Chapter 5

**The Memory Remains**

**Chapter 5 **

Squall's breath was ragged and he felt the time running out. He saw the big beast approaching him, with no sign he would ever stop. He had to end the battle soon. Squall had hit the creature several times, but the slices of the blade were nothing to his hard body. This one seemed to be far stronger than the other ones. On top of that he was able to cast strong magic too. Squall felt him conjuring another spell and the brunet decided to take another strategy.

He cast Reflect on himself quickly and saw a Thundaga come his way and go back to the beast. That made the brunet's opponent groan in pain and Squall took advantage of the beast's distraction to run to his direction. He was almost reaching him when he felt the magical barrier surrounding him vanish. The monster had dispelled his reflect and Squall was astonished when he saw what the beast was going to do; the creature was casting Ultima.

At such a close range he would take the magic blow directly and at full force if he didn't do something to prevent it. Then suddenly he felt something he wasn't expecting; the powerful spell came into his direction, but he didn't take all the damage. He saw the sparkling glow of ice appearing in front of him. Shiva floated in the air and opened her cold arms to take the damage until her HP was depleted, making her vanish soon after. It was very rare for one of his GF's to react like that; he had only seen it happened before with GF's like Odin or Gilgamesh. He had never expected one of his other GF's to appear by their own will. Even though he didn't understand why it happened, there was no time to think about it, he took the opportunity to sink his gunblade deeply into the monster's chest and that time he made sure it was a decisive blow.

The beast fell down in agony and Squall pressed the blade even deeply, before taking it off, making the blood splatter up. He finished the battle severing the beast's neck with his blade, cutting the head off. It rolled to the side, lifeless, but Squall didn't spend much time looking at it. He ran.

"Seifer, where are you?"

The blond was silent for a moment, before answering. "I'm okay, just leave this place."

"Help me get to the control room."

"I'm almost done here. Get away now!"

Squall had a bad feeling about it and rushed to the corridors, trying to remember the map of the place, and figure out where Seifer might be.

The blond was desperate as he watched Squall making his way through the corridors in his direction and not for the exit. "Squall, you won't have time!" He watched as Squall got near. "Please..." he said weakly. It was difficult, but he could accept his own death. To watch Squall dooming himself to the same fate, however, was too much for him. "Squall, you can't save me. The door is locked."

"I'll figure something out..." Just a few more corridors. "Trust me."

Seifer was devastated as he saw Squall approaching, but he still kept watching, a thin hope that the brunet was right. He could do anything, couldn't he? He was the world's hero, the Sorceress slayer...

"Seifer, are you there?"

The blond heard the muffed voice outside the room.

"I'm here!" he shouted. He heard Squall trying to barge in, and hit the door, but it remained unmoving. "I tried that! It won't move!"

There were more hits on the door, before they stopped.

"Squall... Get out of here."

The brunet eyed the large metal door that separated them, feeling his chest clench.

"No..." he whispered to himself.

"I..." Seifer opened a small smile that the brunet couldn't see. "Thank you for coming." He couldn't help but feel a small contentment in knowing Squall had come all the way to save him. "Thank you for giving me a chance. Thank you for trusting me."

Squall stared at the door with desperation. Seifer was locked inside and it was all his fault. He had the idea of bringing the blond to that mission.

"Squall, go! Now!"

"I won't go..." He stared at the door again. He couldn't leave the blond.

"You're gonna die..." Seifer said weakly.

"No..." Squall felt the gears in his brain working, "Seifer, get away from the door!" he yelled.

The blond took some distance.

"Did you figure something out?!" He shouted.

"I think I did. Stay away from the door!" he said before he put his plan into action. Squall closed his eyes and concentrated in summoning one of his Guardian Forces.

A large serpent appeared and twirled in the air, spreading it's large body, preparing its magical attack. Quetzalcoatl's bolts cracked into the air and reached the door in strong electric waves. The metallic door trembled with the force of the magic that damaged its electronic system. When the structure stopped convulsing, Squall kicked the door and saw the metal moving to reveal the inside of the control room and an astonished blond.

"Squall," Seifer rushed towards the brunet.

"Let's go!" Squall stared at the blond reassuringly and turned to run to the exit's direction.

Seifer ran as fast as he could, following Squall through the corridors. He felt exhilarated and fueled by adrenaline. He had just overcome the thought he would meet his end, but he felt an overwhelming excitement. His heartbeats were so loud he could hear them as he ran for his life.

They barged the exit's door open and felt the strike of the cold night air against their skins. Even so, they didn't stop and kept running, until they felt the ground shaking beneath their feet. They threw themselves over the dry earth and protected their bodies from the blow that was to come.

It happened so fast.

In an instant, the whole structure of the building exploded in flames. They felt the impact of the explosion and had gone deaf for a moment.

Squall started to hear the irritant noises that followed a situation like that and he took a deep breath. He felt some dry earth on his lips and opened his eyes to stare beside him. He saw a green gaze staring back and a blond as breathless as him. Both of them stood up clumsily and walked towards the place they had left the car with unsteady steps, tumbling over small rocks.

After a while they reached the car and entered, slumping their tired bodies on the leather seats. They stared back at the place they had been and saw the high flames burning in the dark night.

Seifer stared at it in amazement. It had really happened. They had been there just some minutes before. They had escaped and they were alive.

The blond started to laugh as he watched the flames.

They were alive.

Squall turned to him in confusion and Seifer realized he was being stared at.

"We did it," The blond turned and showed a sincere smile, "We did it." He still saw the serious expression on Squall's face and chuckled in amusement. Seifer felt tears of happiness in the corner of his eyes and chuckled and laughed until he felt tired. Then he turned to stare at Squall again.

"You really came for me. You said you would do that and you did. You saved me," he smiled in amusement. "My hero," he said humorously and pressed his lips to Squall's.

He took advantage of the surprised lips and guided his tongue inside, taking the brunet's mouth in a deep kiss. Seifer tasted blood and astonishment as he felt trembling lips against his own. Even so, Squall didn't ask him to stop, so Seifer continued kissing him as if his life depended on it.

After they finally reached out for air and separated themselves to breathe, Squall asked, "Why did you do that?"

"I don't know. I felt like it."

The brunet averted his gaze, staring ahead in confusion.

"Why? I thought you wanted it," Seifer stared at Squall and saw a serious expression on his face.

"Don't do that again."

That really confused the blond. He didn't know what to do, but nodded in agreement. "Okay."

Seifer inspected Squall's state and saw he was wounded and had blood staining his clothes. "Do you want me to drive?" he asked in concern.

"No, I'm..."

"No, you're not fine," Seifer hissed in anger and opened the door to his side, slamming it close after he stepped outside. He walked around the front of the car and opened the driver's door, "Move!"

Squall stared at the blond in surprise, but decided not to argue, moving his body to the passenger's seat.

Seifer took the driver's seat and slammed the door closed. He started to drive through the deserted lands, under the pitch black sky. Seifer finally saw the road after some time and found no other cars passing by.

They were silent, the road was silent, the world was silent. Seifer took a look at Squall by the corner of his eye and saw the brunet with his arms around his own body, as if protecting himself. Squall was staring forward to the road, but he wasn't paying attention to what he saw, he seemed to be lost in his inner world. He blinked sometimes when they passed under a lamppost, as if the light bothered him somehow. The brunet looked really pale and he had a stream of blood running down his temple and over his cheek. He didn't look like the stoic SeeD commander, Squall seemed to be so young and vulnerable in that state. Seifer felt suddenly guilty for having yelled at him, but there was nothing he could to do change the past...could he?

After some time, they finally reached the hotel again. As soon as Seifer stopped the car, Squall opened the door and got outside the vehicle.

"Squall!" the blonde called, concerned by the brunet's state.

"I can go by myself!" the brunet yelled and turned to meet the blond's astonished gaze. He regretted saying it when he looked at Seifer's face, he seemed to be concerned. "I'm... I'm fine, I'm just tired," he said softly.

"Okay..." Seifer thought it was better not to press the brunet more, even though he felt the urge to come to his aid seeing his fragile state.

Squall turned and headed to his room, without looking back again.

Seifer watched as the brunet walked away from him and decided to head to his room. There was not much he could do at the time; Squall could be as stubborn as him sometimes.

xxx

The first thing Seifer did when he got back to his room was taking a shower. He hoped the water would wash the dirt, the sweat and the death off his body, but something still lingered there. Something remained on his skin and he couldn't brush it away. It was like whispering ghosts of a distant time, torturing his troubled mind. More than physically draining, that mission had been emotionally draining. He had felt excitement and hopelessness. It was like the feelings that had been buried in his soul for years had awakened all at once.

He stepped out of the shower and looked for a towel. Seifer dried himself tiredly and slumped on the bed. He closed his eyes, feeling the tiredness take the best of him for some minutes. But his eyes snapped open suddenly. He stared at the ceiling, feeling unable to sleep.

The blond decided to stand up and put on the first clothes he saw. Maybe it was better to take a walk before he felt ready to sleep.

xxx

The end of the afternoon was pleasant with its gentle sunrays and soft breeze.

Seifer heard the distant sound of cars in the road as he made his way to his room. He was almost reaching the place when he suddenly stopped in his tracks. The blond found himself staring fixedly at a door, the door to Squall's room. He knew he should leave the brunet alone, but he had a feeling there was something wrong. His hand turned the door's handle and he took a look inside. The place was neat and orderly, but there was no sign of Squall.

The blond didn't think twice before entering and closing the door behind him. He scanned the place once more with his eyes and saw that Squall wasn't in the room. Maybe the brunet had gone for a walk, the blond thought, but then something caught his attention. There was a dripping wet sound coming from the bathroom.

"_So he's taking a shower,"_ Seifer rolled his eyes.

There was nothing wrong with that. In a way it was better if he left, but he realized the bathroom's door wasn't entirely closed. Seifer took a deep breath and willed himself to leave the place, but instead, he walked to the door's direction and opened it ajar.

The sight he saw made his eyes widen in surprise. Squall was naked and crouched on the shower, turned to the wall's direction, face down. His skin was glistening white and he seemed he had been there for hours.

"Squall?" Seifer heard his voice echo in the bathroom. The brunet made no sign he acknowledged the blond's presence.

Seifer walked slowly towards Squall's direction, feeling the floor shaking at every step he took. He tried to still himself as he felt the world twirling and a growing feeling in his chest. Suddenly, the drops of water were too loud, almost deafening. He took a glimpse of the clothes scattered on the floor and remembered a voice-

_"What do we do with him, sir?" the guard asked. _

_Seifer stared at the unconscious brunet, drinking in the sight for a while, before ordering, "Strip him."_

_x_

_x_

_x_

_x_

**A/N:** The next chapter will be the last one and I must warn you that it will have torture and sexual violence.

Thank you for reading and special thanks to **Nightlore** for being my beta and for leaving such awesome reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

**READ BEFORE PROCEEDING: **This is the last chapter and I must warn you now that there will have a detailed description of sexual abuse and torture. If some of these themes offend you, you'd better not read it. Sorry for the long wait, I've been feeling a lot tired for working extra hours, so I couldn't concentrate on this story.

_Flashbacks in italics._

* * *

**The Memory Remains**

* * *

**Chapter 6**

_He stared as the guards removed every layer of clothing covering that skin, until the brunet's body was entirely at display for him. _

_"Step aside," he instructed the guards as he took a hose and pointed it at the brunet, "Time to wake up." _

Squall opened his eyes when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He realized the blond was crouched beside him on the bathroom stall with a concerned look on his face.

"Come on, you have to get out of here, this water is fucking cold."

The brunet felt the blond trying to take him away from the water, but he tensed at the hands on him. He shivered at the touch and tried to brush him away. Then the grip on him tightened as Seifer forced him to get out of the shower.

Squall struggled against the strong arms, "Let me go!"

"You're going to get sick if you stay here any longer!"

"Get away from me!" Squall cried out.

Seifer stared at the shivering brunet in his arms and loosened his grip.

"I tried..." Squall whispered.

He seemed to have calmed down a little and was slowly recovering a steady breathing.

"I tried so hard to forget," Squall continued, "I tried to brush the memory away, pretend nothing happened, but in the end of the night it was still there. I tried to focus on my mission, focus on the Sorceress, focus on anything else than me, and... sometimes... it worked. But when I was alone, when I was in my room alone... I thought about it, I dreamed about it. I could never really forget."

Seifer stared at Squall and felt guilt eat up at his soul. He stood up and took some steps away from Squall, but he still had his eyes fixed on the brunet in his frail state.

_"I couldn't forget it too." _

_Seifer saw the brunet's naked body slumped on the cold floor and walked to his direction. _

_Squall could still feel the pain of the electric waves coursing through all his body and he felt too weak to even look at Seifer when he approached. _

_The blond inspected the SeeD's fragile form for a while. The gray-blue eyes were opened, but seemed to stare into nothing, and his body seemed to tremble slightly. Seifer grabbed a handful of Squall's hair, pulling on it to lift the brunet's head. _

_"Look at you now," he whispered dangerously, his face close to Squall's. "What a miserable position. This is all a SeeD can do?" _

_Squall whimpered slightly in discomfort, refusing to look at the green eyes that mocked him._

_"Pathetic," Seifer sighed deeply and turned his head to stare at something._

_A sudden gleam appeared in his eyes. "Come on," he pulled on Squall's hair and forced him to move. "What?" He stared at the brunet's unmoving body. "You're so weak you can't even walk?"_

_Seifer pulled on the brown locks once more, until he saw Squall trying to crouch weakly. The blond felt a wave of excitement as he dragged Squall over the place. He thought he had never felt so good before. _

_Squall felt himself being forced to follow the blond's movements, or else he would have his hair ripped from his scalp. It was too painful to move, too painful to even __breathe__ and his sensitive skin was scratched by the cold tile floor. He didn't know where he was going, following blindly, when he suddenly was made to stop. Squall realized he was facing some sort of bathtub, filled to the brink with water. He gasped in nervousness, knowing what was to come. Squall wondered what had happened to Seifer. The blond had always been arrogant and always wanted things his way, but he had never been so cruel. At that point Squall believed Seifer could do anything. _

_"So you didn't want to tell me what is the purpose of SeeD." _

_"You know what SeeD is, I don't have anything more to say," Squall managed to speak. "It's useless." _

_"Maybe you're right," Seifer gripped Squall's hair tightly. "But you know what? Maybe I like to see you at my mercy."_

_After he said that, he forced Squall's head down on the water. He felt the brunet still for a while, before starting to struggle in his grip. Seifer let him fight against the water for a while, before pulling his head up again. _

_Squall gasped for air and trembled as he tried desperately to breathe. After a while, he felt himself calming down, until he felt the strong grip of hands again. The touch was cold, but in contrast to it, the breath on his earlobe was warm. _

_"Squall..." the blond whispered into the brunet's ear, "You have no idea how good it feels." _

_Then Squall felt himself being pushed back into the water. He endured much less than before and soon he found himself struggling to be freed. At the verge of losing consciousness, he was pulled away from the water again. _

_"Hard to ignore me now, huh?" Seifer didn't give Squall enough time to recover his breath again, pushing his head back into the water. _

_Squall struggled all he could against the freezing water, against the cold hands, but soon he felt his body giving up. He closed his eyes and stopped struggling, feeling numb. _

_Seifer pulled Squall back up and saw his unconscious form. He took a deep breath and stood up in frustration, seeing the end of his game. He stared at the guards and signaled for them to take Squall, "Take him back to his cell." _

He stared again at the brunet's naked body, feeling guilty for a moment, but decided to brush those thoughts away.

"I'm going to leave you now," Seifer turned with the intention of leaving the brunet alone, but he stopped for a moment when he heard Squall's voice.

"Wait," The brunet stood up and turned off the shower, slowly walking to Seifer's direction.

The blond turned again and saw Squall staring with an intense gaze.

"I want to know... if you think of me."

Seifer stared at Squall's naked form and couldn't help but feel something stirring within him. However, he kept silent. The words seemed to be too dangerous at the moment.

"Did you think about what you did?" Squall continued. "Do you remember it sometimes?"

"Squall, stop," Seifer pleaded. "What do you want to me do? Do you want me to feel sorry? Yes, I feel sorry, I told you I regretted it."

"That's not what I'm asking," Squall stepped closer and stopped right in front of Seifer. "I'm asking if you get off on it."

The blond's eyes widened in surprise. He wasn't expecting this turn of events.

Squall watched the confusion dance on the blond's expression and saw he was troubled, even so, he continued, "Do it to me again."

Seifer stepped back and eyed Squall in disapproval. "Have you gone out of your mind? Do you have any idea of what you're asking of me?"

"I..." Squall trailed off and averted his gaze. "I can't forget it... I need it."

"What?!" Seifer asked angrily. "You want me to fuck you? You want me to fuck you this badly?!"

"Yes, I do," Squall confessed, slightly ashamed. "I want you to fuck me like you did before."

"You mean you want me to rape you again?" Seifer laughed out loud, a nervous laugh. "Do you know how fucked up it is to ask me to rape you again?" He stared seriously at Squall, "I'm not going to do this."

"Seifer..."

"This is sick, Squall. I made a mistake once. I don't want to do it. I don't want a bad idea to get the best of me again."

"You don't understand... If you don't do this, I won't be able to get over it. I will keep going back to this point. I won't be able to start over."

"This is a bad idea..." Seifer trailed off.

"You owe me that much," Squall pleaded.

Seifer took a deep breath and averted his gaze for a while, staring at the empty air, "No... You can't ask me that..." he said weakly.

Squall stepped even closer and made the other man stare at him again. "Seifer... do it."

The blond felt Squall was too dangerously close; he could look directly into the blue eyes with their faces almost touching. He felt his heartbeats racing and his body shaking with a barely controlled emotion. Seifer put his hands over the brunet's shoulders and felt the cold skin under his touch. He squeezed the flesh under his grip tightly, digging his fingers into it. As he kept staring at Squall's eyes, he felt he couldn't breathe; the emotions too much to bear. Suddenly he pushed the brunet away, making Squall almost stumble at the abrupt movement.

"I can't do this," Seifer averted his gaze once more.

"Don't you wanna do this?" Squall grabbed him by the collar and pulled hard until Seifer had to turn again to look at him. "You could do this before, why not now?"

"You don't understand, I don't want to hurt you..." Seifer struggled to get free from the brunet's hold, but Squall only tightened it as he pushed the blond against the wall, locking him in place with his body, offering him no escape from the situation.

"You already did... Fix it now,"

"By fucking you again?!" Seifer yelled in anger, hoping the brunet would come to his senses, but instead, he felt Squall's naked body pressing against his even harder and his own body responded to it. He tried to still his breathing as his body's temperature rose, despite the coldness of the bathroom.

The blond's green eyes seemed to burn in intensity and Squall averted his gaze for a while, looking down, even so, he kept his hold on Seifer's shirt. "Yes... That's what I want," he said quietly, but it was enough for the blond to hear.

Seifer grabbed Squall's jaw and made him look up again at him. He saw Squall didn't avert his gaze at the time. "Okay, I'll fuck you and we get over it, if it's what you want so much. Is it what you want?" he asked dangerously.

The brunet nodded in agreement.

The blond stared in disbelief as he suddenly saw the brunet moving away and going to the bedroom's direction, ending up lying face first on the bed.

_Seifer saw that Squall's body was still wet from the previous activity, his pale skin glistening in contrast with the dark walls of the cell. His clothes had been thrown carelessly on the floor when the guards dragged him there. _

_The blond thought it was time to leave, but he found himself unable to turn. He kept staring at Squall's unconscious form as if it hypnotized him. Seifer walked to the brunet's direction and sat on the bed. He felt the sudden urge to touch that pale skin and he couldn't prevent his hand to touch a shoulder tentatively. Soon he felt the courage to slide his hand down the brunet's back, feeling the slender body under his touch. He hummed softly in contentment as his hand moved over the bare skin. Soon, the other hand joined the exploration, and Seifer leaned in closer to the brunet's body. He drove his fingers over arms and neck in gentle strokes at first, losing himself until he felt the brunet moving slightly below him. _

"Take the belt," Squall pleaded.

Seifer stared down at the brunet in a disapproving manner. "No, Squall. Let's do it in another way."

"Please, take it."

"I don't want to repeat what I did to you."

"Just take it..."

Seifer sighed deeply and stood up from the bed; he went back to the bathroom and retrieved a belt from the floor. He walked back to the bed and straddled his body, sitting on him. Seifer gripped the belt tightly in hand and landed the first blow, hitting the brunet's shoulder.

"Harder," Squall said, knowing that Seifer could do much more than that.

"Squall..." the blond warned. He felt bad already for doing that again to him; he didn't want to hurt the brunet like he did before. He remembered that at that time, he had felt a sudden anger, as if he wanted the brunet to feel pain. _The belt kept lashing over Squall's skin, hitting his shoulders and arms and back, leaving red marks where it landed. _

_Squall whimpered in pain, unable to hold back all the sounds he tried to keep in his throat. He was helpless with all the abuse from before, and Seifer's heavy body was keeping him in place. _

_The blond felt a sick satisfaction as he kept hurting the brunet, each blow of the belt fueling him with the need for the next one. He smiled in satisfaction every time he heard the slaps on the skin, and felt the brunet's body's resistance as its muscles tensed with each hit. He found himself rubbing against Squall's backside in rhythm with his movements. Seifer felt the weak struggle of the brunet's hips against his thighs, as he sat over him, the repetitive movement turning him on. The blond kept rubbing himself over Squall, then moving lower, adjusting his position so he was rubbing his covered member over the brunet's cleft. Seifer felt himself hardening against Squall's ass, and he realized he had slowed the hits of the belt in his distracted state. The blond decided that part of the game was over and threw the belt aside. _

_Seifer lifted himself with another idea in mind when he turned Squall, making him lie on his bruised back on the bed. He sat again above the brunet, freeing his member from his pants, guiding it to Squall's mouth. He slid the tip of his erection over the brunet's lips and saw him trying to turn his face away. _

_"Open __your__ mouth," Seifer said in a __husky__ voice. He stared at Squall's face with his green eyes turned hazy with lust and grabbed the brunet's jaw with his free hand. _

_Squall averted his gaze and shut his lips tightly, __and then__ he felt a slap on his face and stared back at Seifer in defiance. _

_"Open it," the blond insisted and slapped him again, this time with more force, hearing the sharp sound echo in the cell. _

_Squall still had his lips shut and stared at the blond with an intense blue gaze. _

"I can't do this," Seifer said as he stared down at Squall's face. The skin was red and bruised where his hand had landed and he felt sick for hurting Squall more.

"Yes, you can," Squall stared up at the blond, pleading him to continue replaying their past.

Seifer narrowed his eyes and took a deep breath, before clenching his hand into a fist. He stared at Squall's blue eyes and lifted his hand into the air. His fist landed heavily on Squall's beautiful face, making him turn his head with the force of the punch. The sound of the heavy blow filled Seifer's ears as he saw the brunet's mouth open and blood appear in his cut lip. He grabbed a fistful of Squall's hair and pulled it, making him tilt his head and open his mouth. Seifer lost little time until he buried himself in the wet heat. He closed his eyes slightly, feeling a wave of excitement fuel his body. His green eyes snapped open again and he stared down as he retreated his member, to bury it again in Squall's mouth afterwards. He groaned in pleasure as he thrust as deeply as he could, feeling the bruised lips around him and the velvet tongue at the underside of his member. Seifer raised his body slightly, leaning over Squall, adjusting his position so he could fit in deeply. He felt the warm throat clenching around him and he groaned deeply in pleasure again. Seifer kept thrusting inside, gripping Squall's head, making his mouth slide all over his engorged member. When he found he was getting too carried away, he stopped, taking a deep breath before retreating.

Seifer lifted himself off the bed briefly and stared at Squall's body. The pale form trembled slightly, and he had a bruised face, but the blond could also notice that, differently from what happened in the past, the brunet was aroused by what was happening.

Brushing all that was left of his self-restraints away, Seifer picked the belt previously discarded and went in Squall's direction. He grabbed the brunet's body and made him turn again, so he was lying on his belly.

"Open your legs." The blond folded the belt, so he could have a better grip of it and tested it against the palm of his other hand, creating a slapping sound.

When Squall heard that, he gripped on the sheets tightly and closed his eyes. He felt the weight of the blond coming over the mattress again. A hand gripped his hip and he felt the leather slide over his skin. Without further warning, the belt was raised and landed on his thigh heavily. Squall didn't have enough time to recover from the blow when it came again, hitting him at the underside of his knee. His body tensed as the belt kept coming down on him, it landed heavily every single time, making his pale skin turn red.

Seifer didn't hold back as he hit Squall with the belt. His own breath was ragged and he felt his own hand hurt, so tight was his grip on the leather. Even so, he did not stop. His eyes scanned the skin, searching for places that hadn't been punished. When he was having difficulty to locate the parts of skin that had not been bruised, he went back to the areas that were darker, inflicting even more pain.

Squall had tried to muffle his sounds in the past, not wanting to give the blond the satisfaction of hearing his painful cries, but at the moment, he didn't care. He whimpered and moaned in pain, feeling the tears gathering in the corner of his eyes. He couldn't help but let go of all the sound that had been buried in this throat, the blows felt even more painful than before. His legs tensed with every hit and at the same time trembled with all the pain that was inflicted. He forgot all his thoughts as his flesh burned. Everything hurt, but it hurt even more from his waist down, that was where Seifer had been concentrating his punishment.

After a while, the hits finally stopped. Squall could feel Seifer shift himself over the mattress and hear the sound of the belt being dropped to the floor. He whimpered when he felt the tip of the erection brush against his opening, quickly forcing its way inside. Squall gripped the sheets even tightly, gasping in pain as the large head spread him open. He felt as if his chest was going to explode, as his heartbeats accelerated madly with the agony he felt.

"You're still so fucking tight," Seifer fought to burry himself inside Squall, trying to force his member against the resistance of that tight heat. He slid himself halfway through and took a deep breath before retreating. Seifer tried again and succeeded in burying himself an inch more than before. He felt Squall shuddering and trembling under him, moaning softly in pain, but not trying to move away. Seifer took hold of a hip and gripped it tightly as he thrust once again, going deeply than before. He kept repeating the movement, fighting against the resistance, until he could fit all his length in.

Squall felt light-headed as Seifer thrust in. The movements were slow and deep, making the brunet feel every inch moving in and out. Then he felt a hand move around his neck, gripping it tightly as Seifer kept fucking him. Squall felt it difficult to breathe as the fingers tightened around his neck. Then he felt the other hand grip him by the other side, so the fingers were warped all around his neck. He felt them press tentatively and then Seifer retreating his member. The hands' grip tightened and the blond thrust in slowly, going all the way in, closing his hands around Squall's neck some more. The brunet closed his eyes and concentrated on breathing, it was a difficult task by then, but he still could take some air into his lungs. Then Seifer started to thrust again, keeping his hands around Squall's neck, closing them around more and more, until he felt the brunet struggling. He loosened his grip slightly and let Squall take a deep breath, before he thrust in deeply again, closing his hands around the brunet's neck, until he felt Squall struggling again. As the younger man fought to get air into his lungs, Seifer felt him grip his cock tightly and groaned in satisfaction. He kept loosening and tightening his grip on Squall's neck in sync with his thrusts, until he locked the hands tightly and kept them in place, just enough for the brunet not to suffocate.

Squall felt his throat burning with the effort he made to get some air into his lungs. He also felt the muscles of his neck scream in agony with the tight grip. The brunet started to feel too light-headed and felt his senses numbing until something called his attention again. The grip on his neck was gone, but he didn't have enough time to breathe in relief when his body was dragged close to the wall. He was forced to stay in a kneeling position and if it wasn't for a hard body supporting him, he wouldn't be able to sustain himself. Squall was pressed tightly against the cold wall and felt the blond thrust in again, his body offering no more resistance.

At that time, Seifer was thrusting with all he could, desperate to find release. He pressed himself tightly against Squall, almost crushing the brunet's body with his weight. His hands gripped the brunet's arms tightly, keeping him in place as he drove his cock viciously inside him. He felt Squall's body shudder slightly against him and he thought that all he wanted at that moment was being like that, burying himself hard and fast into him. He kept thrusting and thrusting, losing his mind and his soul in that heat, until he groaned loudly, filling Squall's insides with his seed. Seifer's orgasm had hit him so hard he felt his vision blur for a while and he still shuddered with the intensity of it.

The blond's breathing was ragged and he felt disoriented for a while, until he finally moved away from Squall. When he opened his eyes again and stared ahead, he felt the reality hit him hard as he came to his senses.

Squall's exposed body was all bruised with purple marks and red lines that gave away the shape of the belt. His skin had been cut in some places with the intensity of the blows, making it bleed. All his back was covered in those bruises and it made the blond's breath hitch in guilty. But the worst sight was when Seifer stared at the lower parts of Squall's body. His thighs had received the harder blows, along with the bottom of his ass, but the entire legs were severely bruised. And then he caught sight of the blood sliding down the brunet's thighs, coming from inside, mixed with semen.

Seifer felt the sudden urge to vomit as he felt bile rising up his throat. He felt light-headed at the sight. Somehow, it seemed worse than the first time he abused Squall. And that had made him leave the brunet's cell as fast as he could when he realized what he had done. He had never thought he would be able to do that again, that first experience leaving him guilty enough for a long time. Seifer felt so ashamed of himself that he thought of leaving the room, but he still urged himself to stay. He knew he couldn't leave the younger man like that.

"Squall..." he whispered softly, grabbing the brunet's arm as gently as he could. He was surprised Squall had been able to remain in that kneeling position, but then realized the brunet was supporting himself against the wall. Seifer turned Squall's face to see if he was still conscious and saw his skin was wet with tears.

"Thank you..." Squall managed to whisper, before he collapsed in Seifer's arms.

"Squall!" the blond called the brunet's attention and shook him slightly, trying to wake him once again. He realized Squall was shuddering slightly, holding onto a thin line of consciousness.

Seifer left Squall for a moment in the bed and stood up to rummage into the room, until he found an X-Potion. He sat back on the bed and cradled Squall's body on his lap. Seifer pushed the brunet's head back slightly and made him open his lips, just enough for him to pour the liquid into his mouth. He saw some of the liquid slipping out, before Squall started to swallow slowly.

"That's it..." Seifer said in a soothing voice, as if talking to a child. He waited until all the liquid had been swallowed and put the vial aside. Seifer was relieved when he realized the bleeding had stopped and carried Squall back to the bathroom. He supported the brunet's body with one arm, as he turned on the shower with his free hand. Seifer felt water falling over them and he didn't care if his clothes got wet in the process. He waited until the water cleaned what it could as it slid over Squall's body and then he moved his hand gently over the abused skin, scrubbing all the blood and semen off of it. He was a little surprised to find traces of Squall's semen on his stomach. It was beyond his comprehension how someone could find the slightest pleasure in being abused like that, but he didn't want to think about it, he didn't want to judge that at the time.

When Seifer finished, he turned off the shower and carried Squall back to the room. He stopped suddenly in his tracks when he saw the situation of the bed. Seifer put the brunet gently on an armchair and took off the blood-stained sheet from the mattress. He dropped it aside, taking a mental note to throw it away later. Then he opened the closet and searched for a spare sheet, covering the mattress again. Seifer went back to the armchair and picked Squall, carrying him to the bed and laying him gently on the clean sheets. Then he went back to the closet and picked a blanket, covering the brunet's body with it. He took some time to adjust Squall's position on the bed, so he could lie as comfortably as possible. Seifer inspected the brunet's face and it seemed to be better. The cut on his lips and the dark marks of the blond's fist were gone with the work of the X-Potion. Squall was then sleeping, a serene expression on his face.

Then Seifer stripped and went back to the bathroom, finishing his own bath. He went back some minutes later, wrapped in a shower robe. The blond sat on the armchair and stared at Squall. The brunet seemed to be sleeping peacefully, as if nothing had happened before. Seifer studied Squall's features and let out a sigh. Somehow, he felt he couldn't take his eyes off of him.

xxx

Neither of them talked about what had happened the previous night. They only exchanged a few necessary words and made arrangements to go back. That mission was practically finished. They had all the information they needed and there were other SeeDs already hunting down what was left of the organization.

They went to the car around noon and took the road back. Seifer didn't say anything, but he was surprised at how Squall had recovered. His face didn't show any more bruises and there were just some minor injuries over his body. Of course, all the healing magic and items had helped a great deal, but even so, Squall looked as if nothing had happened and acted as if nothing had happened.

"I've been wondering..." Seifer said after some hours of silence on the road. He stared as the lazy sunrays of the ending afternoon created an orange glow over the horizon. "Why Sunshine? Why did they name their organization Sunshine?"

Squall stared at the blond briefly and turned to look back at the road. "I don't know," he said softly. "Maybe there are some things we will never know."

"Yeah..." Seifer eyed Squall. There were some things he was trying to comprehend, his conflicting feelings. "Maybe there are some things we will never know..." he repeated what the brunet had said and stared again at the horizon, feeling a soft breeze make its way through the window, caressing his skin. He watched the sun move slowly down in the sky, seeming to be larger as its rays spread over the horizon, creating a reddish glow over the mountains. "I've been thinking..."

Squall stared at the blond beside him and waited for him to continue.

"Maybe I was lying about that thing of not being gay."

The brunet arched an eyebrow in surprise, not expecting the topic to be brought.

Seifer turned his head and stared at Squall.

They kept staring at each other for some time, locking their gazes intensely in one of those moments only they shared. Time stopped for a moment. Green meeting blue in a silent understanding. Then time started to run again when they turned their gazes back to stare at the road ahead, heading in the direction of the sunset.

x

x

x

x

x

**A/N:** So this is the end. What happens beyond that is left for your imagination. I don't know if they would take different paths or maybe try something together. I just couldn't make them have a happily ever after ending after all that happened. What I really wanted in this fic was write about a trauma from sexual abuse, but instead of making Squall run away from Seifer, I wanted him to go after him. I heard that some people that experience this kind of trauma sometimes have flashbacks of what happened and somehow try to live the experience again in some way. They can become the future aggressors, but in Squall's case, he wants it to happen again. I didn't want the sex scene to be all in flashbacks, I wanted them to do what happened in the past in their present. One thing that my beta pointed out when he first read this story was the memory loss caused by GFs. Somehow I couldn't find a good point in the story to explain this, so I'll do it in this note in case some of you wondered about it. It's been a while since I played the game, but I believe that with the constant use of GFs the memories will eventually be forgotten. What happened in this story is that the events didn't happen so long before, so Squall still remembered. I think that if he kept making use of GFs, he would start to forget in some years.

**There is a little epilogue after this note, telling what happened to Maxi and Motochika. **

I was a little unsure of posting this fic and this chapter because I was a little afraid of people's reaction. Well, now that it's posted, it would be good to know what you thought of it, I really don't know people's reaction to this story. I know that some people are reading, but I rarely hear an opinion, so I've been pretty much left in the dark.

I used to be more in touch with this fandom some years ago, but now I confess I don't read nearly as much fics as I used to. I was thinking about writing a longer multi-chapter SxS story, a medieval universe with battlefields and some elements of fantasy, but I'm not sure if I'm going to do it. It's not as if people are expecting more of my SxS fics anyway. I talked to a few nice people in this fandom and I'm happy for it, but overall, the reception to my work seems to be a little cold, I almost never know what people think of my stories. It's not as if I will never write for FF8 again, there are some ideas I can only write for this pairing, but I'm not much excited to post another story in a very short time. I will, however, post a sequence to my PuPu humor fic, so if anyone read that and liked it, stay tuned xD

Special thanks to my beta-reader **Nightlore** for helping me with my text, correcting my mistakes, explaining me things and being there for me when I needed. You're so very kind for being the only one here to leave reviews xD

Thank you **Girouette**, **Leila Nami** and **Risika Kiisu Seto **for favoriting the story and for everyone who read.

x

x

x

**Epilogue**

Maxi walked through the port and saw a man dressed in leather.

The black and white hair moved with the wind as he played a slow song on the shamisen, staring at the horizon ahead.

"So you thought of coming here too?" Maxi asked, letting his presence be known.

Motochika kept playing as he turned to the dark-haired man, smirking in amusement. "Don't tell me you are surprised."

Maxi chuckled and stared at the sight ahead. The sky was clear, without any clouds. Just some seagulls disturbed the blue with their flying bodies. The sea was waving gently, dancing around the ships that swam over the deep blue waters. "I figured you had nothing better to do at this hour."

"What? You're saying I have nothing to occupy my life with?" Motochika asked with a fake tone of annoyance.

"Now that you're unemployed, I figured you had nothing to do."

"And you're unemployed too," Motochika smiled, not seeming to be bothered by his current status.

Maxi laughed in amusement and took some steps closer to the taller man. "I guess I am."

"You don't seem to be bothered by it."

"And you don't seem too," Maxi grinned and stared back at the sea. "You know what I am thinking?"

"How should I know? I can't read minds..." He inspected the other man's feature and smiled. "Do you want to make me curious?"

"Maybe I do," Maxi turned to face Motochika and smiled back. "But I'm gonna tell you."

"I knew you couldn't keep a secret for long."

"Hey, it's not a secret," his smile widened as he let his idea play in his head. "Do you know what we should do?"

"Oh, I'm sorry, but I'm taken." Motochika smiled playfully.

"It's not that!" Maxi yelled in good humor. "I was thinking about another thing. See those ships over there?"

"Yeah..."

"We should do it. Buy a ship and start a business."

"Are you really serious?" Motochika inspected Maxi's expression.

"Maybe I am." Maxi took some steps away and swinged his nunchaku in the air, practicing some movements.

Motochika smiled playfully and let the idea play in his head. "Maybe I like your idea."

"You like it, don't you?" Maxi arched a dark eyebrow and smiled back.

"Yeah..." Motochika stared at the vast waters ahead in longing. "Maybe I do."


End file.
